It connects people to the land. It creates opportunities for farmers to provide food directly to their customers and helps communities to build skills, trading systems, networks and resilience. Local food can also have many benefits for the local economy, community regeneration, health and the environment.
The Plunkett Foundation is leading a group of organisations, who are using their expertise and specialist knowledge to offer advice and practical assistance to a range of enterprises. Together, we are developing and promoting sustainable ways to reconnect land and people through food.
Funded by the Big Lottery Fund as part of its Changing Spaces programme,
Making Local Food Work is rooted in the belief that the needs of consumers, producers and the land are interdependent, and that community enterprise can renew and strengthen these links to the lasting benefit of all.
OUR PROJECTS
The Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) approach is based on mutual support between farmers and consumers in which people are investing in their local farm in return for a share of the harvest. As well as reconnecting people with the land and their food, it can give farmers and food growers a secure income and also helps to create a sense of community. The Soil Association is providing training, advice and support, case studies and technical information to those looking to develop a local CSA scheme.
Food Co-ops and Buying Groups are schemes in which, by buying food in bulk direct from suppliers, groups such as residents associations, community groups or parents at a local school can benefit by getting good food at a more affordable price. Sustain, in partnership with several other organisations, is developing a range of resources, such as toolkits, educational leaflets and marketing materials, to help food co-ops start up or build on their successes. Sustain also organises various events to enable groups around the country to share good ideas on what works to create flourishing food co-ops.
Distribution costs can be a major barrier to the sale of local food, and so Sustain is working with local Food Distribution and Supply projects in urban and rural locations around England, to increase and improve the supply of fresh, seasonal produce. These can include providing local food for school meals, or running a fruit and veg delivery service. Learning from these projects, Sustain will also publish advice and guidance on the best ways community enterprises can tackle distribution issues. This will be based on research into existing projects throughout the country, with many opportunities for sharing and learning from good ideas.
For over ten years, farmers’ markets have been bringing producers and customers together on a regular basis. Co-operative Farmers’ Markets allow the producers to own, control and gain more benefit from the markets they attend and so, with plenty of demand for more farmers’ markets, Plunkett and the National Farmers’ Retail and Markets Association (FARMA) are developing a support package to help set up an run co-operatively-run farmers’ market groups that will benefit producers and consumers.
Sustainable Home-Produced Food: Members of Country Markets Ltd sell their high quality home-made, home-baked or home-grown produce directly to the public at approximately 450 weekly co-operatively run Country Markets, and at farmers’ markets and special events. By working with producers and advisers, providing toolkits and training, the aim of this project is to develop a market for selling their produce through community-focused shops and other retail outlets throughout the country.
Local shops are often the heart of the community and the Community Shops & Local Food project aims to help community-run and traditional independent shops to stock and sell more locally produced food, thereby also creating valuable retail outlets for small-scale producers. The Plunkett Foundation will offer a toolkit backed up by expert support on everything from building relationships with producers, to merchandising, storage and marketing. Good Governance is essential to the long-term viability of community enterprises. Co-operativesUK are working to ensure that groups adopt sound legal and organizational structures. Using training programmes, a website, a helpline and other resources, they will foster a strong understanding of governance and legal structures among community enterprises.
The Plunkett Foundation and Co-operativesUK are also offering Specialist Community Enterprise Support in the form of specialised consultants, who will provide targeted advice and mentoring to community enterprises.
Local Food Webs are networks of producers, processors, distributors and retailers, which are vital to the local economy, community and environment. The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), with support from Sustain, will equip and help communities across England to map their local food web and to use the findings to influence policy locally, regionally and nationally.
It is vital to understand what difference our work makes to the communities we are supporting, and to share our learning. Plunkett is leading and assisting other projects in the sharing of Information, the Communication of our findings and good practice, and the Evaluation of just what Making Local Food Work is achieving
How you can get involved…
Whether you simply want to buy local food from your nearest outlet, or you want to start a food co-op, community shop or CSA project, we can offer you the advice and support you need to make it happen. Perhaps you already run a community enterprise and want specialist advice or training on finance, local food marketing or how to contact your local producers. Perhaps you’re a farmer who wants to find new, direct outlets for your produce. Many such opportunities are available so please get in touch with us and we’ll do everything we can to help you.
For more information, please visit www.makinglocalfoodwork.co.uk
