News Archive

Stocking local; Growing SalesA national community shop networking event: Sourcing local food from your region. The popular series of national networking events for community shops is coming to the South East for the first time.Focusing on the importance of stocking local food, this event will show you how to increase sales, widen your customer base and help your community access good quality, fresh local produce.  The South East has an extensive range of local produce; this event will display the variety and richness of local produce from Sussex and the surrounding counties as well as giving you a unique opportunity...

Co-operatives UK launches ‘most comprehensive’ suite of resources for community food enterprisesThe most comprehensive suite of resources ever to be developed for community enterprises has been launched today by Co-operatives UK, to give community enterprises access to top quality financial, legal and governance advice.Co-operatives UK, the trade association for co-operative enterprises, has developed the resources with nationally recognised experts as part of the Making Local Food Work programme, a £10m project funded by the Big Lottery Fund that supports community food enterprises across England. The suite of resources, available both online and as hard copies, is free to use and...

Friday 16 September, 9am - 5:30pmAt-Bristol, Harbourside, Anchor Road, Bristol, BS1 5DB  As part of its involvement with Making Local Food Work, the Soil Association is hosting a one-day conference in September to celebrate Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), exploring the diversity of enterprises, hearing from CSAs overseas and looking to the future of CSA development in the UK.The day will provide an opportunity for community supported agriculture enterprises to come together, to experience being part of a bigger network on a local, regional and national scale. The conference will create opportunities to network, to share good practice and to hear from interesting models. In...

BBC Radio 4 is gearing up for its 12th Food and Farming Awards, searching for the best, most inspiring food producers, farmers, markets, caterers, campaigners and retailers in a miasma of economic gloom. Food inflation on the high street and record-breaking commodity prices are headline news alongside sombre reports of belt-tightening and job losses all around. But the BBC believes this is the perfect opportunity to showcase some of the fantastic producers and retailers that are helping to make good food an important part of people’s lives. The BBC is currently calling for nominations for a range of categories, from...

Bookings are still being accepted for the Food and Spatial Planning conference, which will be held at University College London on thee 15th of July.  Spatial planning in our towns, cities and countryside shapes the food system, from influencing our food shopping and eating habits, to safe-guarding agricultural land for production and allocating spaces for urban food growing. This event will explore how Planners, Local Authorities and Food and community organisations can influence and use planning policy to help create a more sustainable food system.  Themes will include• Retail diversity and supermarkets • Healthy food environments • Land use for urban and commercial food...

Three Liverpool community food initiatives involved in a countrywide project to encourage people to eat more local food have been honoured in top regional awards for their contribution to making Merseyside a greener place to live. Homeless Hostels Food Alliance with YMCA; Windsor Grass Roots Green Shoots with Squash Nutrition and the Fork to Fork project with Rotters Community composting were all finalists in the It’s Our World Merseyside Environmental Awards 2011, with Homeless Hostels Food Alliance winning overall. All three initiatives, which alongside others make up the Liverpool Food Alliance, are part of the Making Local Food Work programme,...

A food producer in Taunton has been awarded an MBE for Services to Food Producing Businesses in the South West in the 2011 Birthday Honours List.June Small of Charlton Orchard, Creech St Michael near Taunton, has devoted her life to promoting locally-produced food, both in the South West and across the country. June’s mission began when her family’s livelihood was threatened by the influx of French apples. She united other women farmers in Kent and together they established the Women’s Food and Farming Union (WFU) as a way of promoting the value of British produce. Today, the WFU has representatives...

Free event for community food enterprises to measure their real social and economic impactA 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 profit driven. However,...

A community in London is fighting to save local farmland from being turned into car storage space.Residents of Woodmansterne, near Banstead, are hoping to raise enough money to purchase the land and turn it into a Community-owned Farm, offering people the chance to grow their own food, learn about where their food comes from and socialize with other members of their community. With £580,000 already being raised through pledges, the community is now exploring different options for raising the same amount again in order to purchase the land before the end of June. They hope to follow in the footsteps...

 National broadsheet The Times has launched a campaign to encourage consumers to shop locally. The Shop Local Campaign, which began on 11 June and runs until 23 July, gives readers of The Times a chance to collect coupons which can then be redeemed in participating local independent shops for discounted goods. The Times Shop Local campaign is an effort to help shoppers discover the delights of their local, specialist produce shops, from butchers to bakers and from fromageries to delicatessens, farm shops and community-owned shops.The Plunkett Foundation is encouraging community-owned shops and local food producers who are not yet participating...