Welcome to the July 2009 Making Local Food Work newsletter. You may be surprised to hear from us so soon after the last quarterly newsletter. That’s because we’ve decided that we should be updating you more frequently about the fast-moving world of local food and community enterprise. As you can see, there’s still plenty to say, but if there’s anything you’d like to see more or less of, please let us know on info@makinglocalfoodwork.co.uk.
Conference Details
Our second conference, Making Local Food Work: Community Enterprise and the Future of Food will take place on Wednesday 30th September at the Bristol Marriott City Centre Hotel. Guest speakers include Professor Kevin Morgan from Cardiff University and Dr Tom MacMillan from the Food Ethics Council. Workshops will discuss the benefits of community food enterprises to farmers, how to measure and prove local impacts, whether ethics and affordability are compatible, safeguarding local food networks, how community ownership works and how to mainstream co-operative models of food enterprise. For more information and booking forms, please visit our conference page http://www.makinglocalfoodwork.co.uk/about/ice/conference_march_09.cfm.
Social Business Toolkit Launched
The Enterprise Support team of Making Local Food Work have made available a toolkit for social enterprises. Stuffed with cribsheets on topics as diverse as how to develop a business plan to the current trends and issues in the local food sector, these are a handy resource for budding and seasoned social entrepreneurs alike. Download them from the Enterprise Support project pages from http://www.makinglocalfoodwork.co.uk/about/toolbox/Toolbox.cfm.
CSA Conference Cancelled, Development Seminars Launched
Sadly, the Soil Association have had to make the decision to cancel the forthcoming CSA conference, which was due to take place from 6th ? 9th August. Apologies to all those who have already booked onto it and to those who have planned their summer holidays around it.
The good news is that, starting in July, the Soil Association will be offering a range of development seminars for trading CSA schemes in England. Sessions will cover community finance, horticultural crop planning and enterprise governance. These events are by invitation only, for established trading CSA schemes. In addition, regional networking events for emerging CSA schemes will also be set up. If you want more information about either type of CSA sessions, please call Amanda Daniel on 0117 914 2424 or Dan Keech on 0117 914 2430.
Vacancy: Project Officer, Northern England
Part time - 3 days per week. £23-25,000 pro rata, home-based.
Join us as Project Officer for our Farmers Market strand, and you?ll provide comprehensive coordination support to Farmers Markets located between the Midlands and the Scottish border. This will include everything from booking venues and liaising with participants to delivering training workshops. You?ll also research the market for local foods in the area of each participating group, establishing links with other markets and stakeholders. And you?ll prepare reports on the development opportunities for participating markets, as well as accurately recording all financial, evaluation and project management data.
Read the job description and how to apply on our jobs page http://www.makinglocalfoodwork.co.uk/news/news.cfm/newsid/69.
Add your food co-op to foodcoops.org
As part of our Food Co-ops and Buying Groups strand, Sustain have launched a dedicated website about food co-ops, with loads of information from where to find a co-op near you to how to set up your own. If you are a member of a food co-op or know of once that should be listed, why not go to www.foodcoops.org and add it to the directory for others to find?
Case Study: Lanreath Community-Owned Shop ‘Look for Local’ Launch
Lanreath Community Owned Shop was started by the villagers after their old shop closed, leaving them with a four-mile round trip for even the smallest of life’s necessities. The District Council offered them the use of an old toilet block, which was converted with funding from the Plunkett Foundation, National Lottery and the Post Office, among others, to make it unrecognisable from its former use! The new community owned shop is well-used by local residents, with 57% of respondents to a recent survey saying that they use it every day.
As well as all of the usual product lines you would expect in a convenience store, the shop is also working hard to make local produce available to its customers, again saving them a long drive to the supermarket. In order to make the most of its local food offering, it is participating in the Look for Local Food project, which is part of the Making Local Food Work programme and is run by the Plunkett Foundation. The project aims to support shops to source more produce directly from local farmers and growers, to market this effectively and to make it a part of their long-term strategy.
Lanreath Community Owned Shop, who are one of the first shops to be involved in Look for Local Food, decided to launch their local produce campaign on May Day, and here’s an account of the event from Marion Facey and Bridget Clark:
"MAYDAY CELEBRATIONS MONDAY 4TH MAY, 2009
We decided that Lanreath May Day would be the best day to launch our Local Food Produce Campaign as it is a popular day which attracts a good turnout from the local community. It was decided that two stalls would be manned on the day. The first would be on the village green promoting samples of new potential products that could be stocked in the shop and the second would be outside the frontage of the shop to display local produce already stocked inside.
The stall on the green supplied products that we sourced from a wholesaler called Plough to Plate. Plough to Plate source their products from local producers in the South West and act as central distribution for businesses to get all their local supplies from under one roof instead of having to visit many different producers. We chose to promote local pasties made in Bodmin (12 miles away from Lanreath), cheeses, apple juice (from apples grown and made into juice at an orchard just 5 miles from Lanreath), jams, chutneys and honey from Par, (about 10 miles away). The full plates of free samples and tasters of the apple juice proved very popular.
The shop?s most local supplier is no more than 2 miles away at Bocaddon Farm who already supply us with various cheeses, Guernsey milk and fresh eggs. We had four types of their cheeses for people to sample; Cracked Pepper, Herb and Garlic, ?Just Plain Naked? and Black Olive. The day gave us the opportunity to promote products such as these that are already stocked in the shop.
We secured two new local suppliers for the shop, both of which came and sold their products at the May Day?s ?Farmer?s Market? . One supplies mixed salad leaves, spinach and kale, all pre-packed, and organic from Herodsfoot just 5 miles away from Lanreath. These are sold on a sale or return basis with a delivery each week. The second supplier, Sargies Cornish Kitchen, is run by Dave and Kirsty Sargent from the Bude area. They supply home made desserts, such as sticky toffee and chocolate pudding, which can be sold frozen or chilled.
This promotion has put us in touch with new local suppliers and found out what our customers like, giving us a better idea of what products to stock in the shop. All in all it was a successful day for our shop. It was Marion?s idea to keep the shop open for the best part of the day, which paid off handsomely as we had nearly two hundred customers, twice as many as normal, and our turnover for the day was the best ever."
The Look for Local Food project will be rolled out to one hundred shops across England in the autumn. If your shop is interested in participating, why not register your interest with Nicole Hamilton at the Plunkett Foundation?
Local News:
Exeter CSA harvest their first potatoes
On June 21st, Midsummer's Day, we lifted our first new potatoes (funnily enough called 'Nicola'!) The sun shone on 20 Exeter Community Agriculture members, including one child and a dog (again!). We ceremoniously lifted around 60kg of potatoes in a very short time, before picnicking and discussing what to sow next on the cleared patch. The harvest was weighed and recorded, and it looks as if we will raise around 1,000 kg in total from our 250kg seed potatoes - if the weather holds. We have worked out a temporary pricing policy for the potatoes - 60p/kg for those who've helped with the potatoes and 90p/kg to other members. We're now looking at how to establish a proper work-share system or 'currency' to include different kinds of work people do.
Everyone brought food for a picnic and the afternoon was spent preparing seed beds with some people scything the long grass around our plot. Through the summer we'll be meeting fortnightly at least to lift more first and second early potatoes and look after any new crops. There are also plans for building 2 compost toilets on site, and further scything instruction. During the autumn we hope to be putting in a stock-proof fence and hedging. There's lots of deciding and discussing to do as well - everything from what to plant, to our communication system - but things are definitely coming together!
Nicola Beglin, Exeter Community Agriculture
MLFW Facebook Group
Making Local Food Work is now on Facebook, so you have another way to keep up with the latest news and also to have your say by discussing issues with other MLFW supporters. You can find it here (link text shortened using TinyURL): http://tinyurl.com/kolt7y
That’s all for this month. If you’re going to the Royal Show next week (6-10 July), don’t forget to come and meet us on stand K54, which is in the Communities area.
Best wishes
The MLFW Team