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August 2009
Welcome to the second monthly Making Local Food Work newsletter. August is traditionally a quiet month in most offices, but not here: work continues apace preparing for the conference, as the update below will explain, while the Community Owned Shops strand gears up for its first big roll-out and referrals to our Enterprise Support team keep flooding in. It’s a busy time for community food enterprises too, as this summer’s good growing weather brings bumper harvests.
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Conference Update
Places at the conference are selling fast, so please do book now to avoid disappointment. Keynote speakers have now been confirmed as Barny Haughton, Chef-Proprietor of Bordeaux Quay restaurant and outspoken advocate of local food; Professor Kevin Morgan from Cardiff University, expert in community self-governance and sustainable agri-food systems; Tim Crabtree, Executive Director of Local Food Links, the award-winning local food distribution scheme in Dorset.
The programme (subject to minor changes) is as follows:
9:30am Delegate registration
10am Chair’s welcome and introductions: Peter Couchman, Plunkett Foundation
10:10am Keynote presentation: Prof Kevin Morgan, Cardiff University
10:40am Case Study: Tim Crabtree, Local Food Links
10:55am Q&A, Chair’s summary
11:15am Coffee and Networking Break
11:45am Workshops
12:45pm Lunch
1:45pm Workshops
2:45pm Coffee and Networking Break
3:15pm Closing session introduction: Peter Couchman, Plunkett Foundation
3:20pm Keynote presentation: Barny Haughton, Bordeaux Quay
3:45pm Q&A, Chair’s summary
4pm Thanks and close
MLFW on Twitter
Food Co-ops Toolkit up and running
The foodcoops.org website now features a Food Co-ops Toolkit, packed with advice and useful tools for existing or potential food co-ops. From how to manage volunteers to writing a business plan, and from what equipment you need to how to advertise, it’s all there and helpfully laid out with links and downloads for anybody wanting to set up their own food co-op.
See for yourself at www.foodcoops.org
Case Study – Food Chain North East CIC
The Food Chain (North East) was set up in 2004 as a way of making it easier for people in the north east to buy fresh, affordable fruit and locally grown or sourced vegetables.
The Food Chain North East is a Community Interest Company, meaning that it can operate as a business but using its profits and assets for the public good. As a social enterprise, the business is not motivated by profit, so the emphasis is on selling fresh produce at close to wholesale prices for the benefit of customers, as Development Officer Anthony Armstrong puts it: “We price our products to cover our costs, any surplus which we do make will be ploughed back into the company to help us to expand our business.” This is an ethos that clearly works: The company now supplies through over 100 venues every week across the four counties. These venues, locally organised co-ops, vary from housing associations and PCT-initiated community projects to an ecovillage, although locations are typically in old colliery or steelworks areas, in isolated communities in both urban and rural settings. Residents in these areas typically have little or no access to fresh fruit and vegetables, let alone at realistic prices. The staff at Food Chain North East conduct regular price checks to ensure that they are competing with the supermarkets, whilst it is known that local food is also fresher and will last longer.
The distribution model is financially sustainable and has inspired similar schemes elsewhere, with a critical mass having been reached, which means that it is getting easier and easier to locate new business. The only challenge at present is to find enough local produce to meet demand, since supermarket activity has squeezed out many of the traditional wholesalers. The proposed solution is to work directly with local growers, such as CSA groups and organic box schemes, with a view also to the business one day having its own growing land. There are also plans to expand into more schools and to begin educating children about healthy eating habits and re-engaging with where their food comes from.
For more information, go to www.thefoodchain-ne.co.uk
Recruitment of shops advisers
The Community Shops and Local Food strand is rolling its Look For Local Food scheme out to 100 new community owned shops this Autumn and is recruiting advisers up and down the country to help with this.
If you have experience of community retail and local food, and would like to get involved, please visit the shops pages for further information and details of how to apply.
The closing date for applications is Friday, 7th August.
Local News – The Story Community Farm looking for members
Set up by farmers Luke Hasell, Jim Twine and Phil Haughton, The Story Community Farm is a brand new Community Supported Agriculture scheme in Somerset. All three founders have been involved in direct selling and are passionate about good, sustainably produced food, but they realised that they had a shared vision: to work with people from Bristol and the surrounding area to help play a small part in reshaping the way food is grown, sold and consumed through reconnecting the local community with agriculture.
Membership is open to all comers at three levels: Citizen, Apprentice and Organisational. Citizen members pay £25p.a. and, whilst they do not have the time to help out on the farm, they benefit from a 5% discount on the weekly box. Apprentice members pay £300pa. and get to participate in and learn from all of the work that goes into producing their box, on which they get a 10% discount. Organisations, such as local businesses, can benefit from group discounts of 10% per employee signed up, at a total cost of £750p.a. for the organisation. The farm is also available for team building days and offers special rates for charities and social enterprises. This is a brand new CSA, so now is the time to get involved!
Visit their website for further details. You can also ‘try before you buy’ as the lunch at the September conference is being supplied by the Story Group.
Governance Training
Co-operativesUK are running the ‘Good Governance’ strand of Making Local Food Work, working to ensure that groups adopt sound legal and organisational structures. As part of our delivery of this work, we are running a series of regional workshops designed to improve the knowledge of legal structures and good governance and their critical role in the sustainability of organisations, with the next one taking place in Birmingham on Wednesday 26th August. The workshop will last from 10am to 4pm, with lunch and refreshments provided. Places are charged at £57.50 per person.
Please contact Laura Chillag on 0161 246 2953 or email mlfw@cooperatives-uk.coop. Further information can also be found at http://www.makinglocalfoodwork.co.uk/about/gs/Regional_training.cfm
We hope you have a lovely summer holiday if you’re going anywhere this month, and enjoy the best seasonal produce at this abundant time of year.
Best wishes
The MLFW Team
