Our objective: to 'reconnect people and land through local food ­ increasing access to fresh, healthy, local food with clear, traceable origins'.

Making Local Food Work is an exciting initiative managed by The Plunkett Foundation, as the leader of a partnership of interested groups including the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), Co-OperativesUK, Country Markets Limited, National Farmers' Retail & Markets Association (FARMA), Food Links UK (now part of Sustain), Soil Association and Village Retail Services Association (ViRSA).

This initiative is being supported by Big Lottery, who will invest £10 million into local food initiatives across rural and urban England over the next five years. The aim of the project is to refine and deliver a range of community enterprise models which will reconnect the vital links between land and people ­ or between producers and consumers.

We intend to look at the long-term sustainability of initiatives which bring about this reconnection, and to support the mainstreaming of those that are known to work or shown to work after piloting. We also aim to support the good governance that is necessary if these initiatives are to work practically and successfully.

To help us do so, we need more talented people with the commitment to deliver the changes and the results that are so important to our local communities in particular, and to our lifestyles and the economy as a whole.