Plunkett Foundation News

The Making Local Food Work team from t!he Plunkett Foundation will be exhibiting at the food and music event of the year, The Big Feastival, in London at the beginning of July.Brainchild of Jamie Oliver, The Big Feastival brings together one of the most exciting line-ups of the summer with celebrity chefs, restaurants and food producers from across the country. With a focus on family, food and fun, the Big Feastival is a must-see for everyone! We’ll be manning a very special stand across the three-day festival, which takes place on Clapham Common in London 1-3 July 2011. For more...

The Plunkett Foundation and Plymtree Community Shop were featured on the BBC's national breakfast news yesterday, Monday 30 May. The piece highlighted the value of the community shop in Plymtree and the strength of the sector as a whole. It was broadcast throughout the morning with an accompanying editorial on the BBC's Business section of the website. You can watch the video here and read the accompanying web article here.

The first Co-operative Pub in Yorkshire (and the third in the country!) is celebrating its first successful year trading in its annual report, which has just been released. The report, which can be downloaded here, goes through the community of Hudswell's journey to save its only local, the George and Dragon, charting their successes and how they overcame the challenges presented.  

National drive launched to measure the real social and economic impact of the UK’s community food enterprisesA national drive has been launched in an attempt to measure the real social and economic impact of community food enterprises in the UK.Led by Making Local Food Work – a Big Lottery funded programme delivered by the Plunkett Foundation – the research project aims to address the current problem that exists throughout the entire third sector of measuring the true impact of social enterprises. The impact of social enterprises is notoriously hard to measure, given that their objectives are primarily social rather than...

The Plunkett Foundation has joined forces with Victory Housing Trust and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation to deliver a project in north Norfolk that will see £110,000 being injected into the area for the development of new community-owned shops. With only three community shops, north Norfolk will benefit greatly from additional financial support and advice from the project.  It is hoped that the project will inspire similar partnerships between housing associations and support organisations for the development of community shops. “We are delighted to receive this money from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation,” said Victory chief executive John Archibald.  “It is a powerful...

  We are now taking bookings for our 2011 Annual Seminar, Localism: shifting rural powers, which is set to take place on Wednesday 8th June in Westminster. Tickets can be booked via the online booking system at http://plunkettseminar2011.eventbrite.com/. Localism: shifting rural powers will explore the shifting balance of political influence and community empowerment affecting rural communities today and the impact this will have in the near future. In light of recent changes, rural communities have been asked to step up to the mark to take control of the issues affecting them. The Government is committed to empowering communities and this...

Woodgreen Community Shop celebrates new premises opening with party for whole communitySaturday 14th May 2011 11:30am: Opening Ceremony – 6pm: Hog Roast, BBQ, beer tent & bandsResidents of a Hampshire village are set to celebrate the opening of brand new shop premises after raising over £300,000. Woodgreen Community Shop – owned and run by the community itself – managed to raise £120k from donations and fund-raising events alone to contribute to the building of custom-made timber and red brick premises (pictured right), with the remainder of the required funds being secured through grants from various sources including the Big Lottery...

Local food has made national headlines recently with the news that a third of British adults will be growing their own vegetables this summer in an effort to combat rising food costs in times of austerity. Although this is an encouraging statistic for the local food movement, there still remain two thirds of adults unable to participate due to lack of knowledge, skills and various perceived barriers such as not having access to an allotment. But allotments are not the only way of gaining access to locally-produced food. The national Making Local Food Work programme works with both urban and...

The Fox and Hounds Inn in Ennerdale Bridge, Cumbria, is set to enjoy its official opening today – and become the fifth pub in the UK to be owned and run by the whole community. After being threatened with losing the pub – a vital hub of the rural village – the community pulled together to raise the remarkable total of £77,600 in just ten days. “There were those who thought that the community would never meet such a big target of £67,000 within the 10-day deadline that was set,” said project manager Peter Maher. “Instead the fundraising raced away...

Yarpole Community Shop – the first ever custom-built shop to open in a church – named Best Village Shop at Countryside Alliance Awards A community-owned shop in Yarpole, near Leominster, has fought off stiff competition from across the entire country to be named Best Village Shop and Post Office at the prestigious Countryside Alliance Awards national finals, held yesterday (Wednesday 30th March) at the House of Lords. When Yarpole – a small rural village of only 700 people – lost the last shop in their village in 2005, the community were left stranded with no vital service. Undaunted, they sprang...