Community food enterprises are businesses run by communities for their benefit, which are involved in at least one part of growing, harvesting, processing, distributing, selling or serving local food. Examples include farmers’ markets, community-owned shops, community supported agriculture, country markets, food co-operatives and many others.
Sir Horace Plunkett, founder of the Plunkett Foundation, was passionate about supporting food and farming enterprises, and believed that when communities themselves take control of the issues affecting them life is better for everyone. Today, the Foundation exists to take forward Sir Horace’s vision of the ‘Three Betters’ – Better Farming, Better Business, Better Living. He believed that farming and food production was fundamental to communities, and that by taking what he believed to be a better business approach – the co-operative approach – it led to better living.
