News Archive

AdministratorCompetitive salary • Woodstock, OxfordshireAre you excited by the idea of helping sustainable community enterprises to reconnect people with, and increase access to, local food? As the administrator for Plunkett Foundation, the national charity that is the UK's leading exponent of rural social enterprise, you’ll be doing just that, by supporting farmers’ markets, community-owned village shops, community transport schemes, food co-operatives and local food distribution hubs throughout England. You’ll also be a first point of contact for the Making Local Food Work programme, run by Plunkett Foundation. This groundbreaking initiative is supported by £10 million funding by the National Lottery...

Making Local Food Work: Community Enterprise and the Future of Food Conference – 30th September 2009, BristolWe look forward to seeing you at Community Enterprise and the Future of Food, the second Making Local Food Work conference.  As with the first conference in March this event is a sell out with 250 people attending which is fantastic and demonstrates the appetite for these approaches.Headline speakers at the event includeProfessor Kevin Morgan of Cardiff UniversityTim Crabtree, Director of Local Food LinksBarny Haughton of Bordeaux QuayMore about the event....The people attending the event are a mix of community food enterprises, support organisations,...

Plans for 2009      The eighth British Food Fortnight takes place from 19 September to 4 October 2009 during Harvest Festival, the traditional time for celebrating our food.The event will celebrate the diverse and delicious range of food that Britain produces with promotions and tastings in shops, all-British menus in pubs and restaurants, food and cookery lessons in schools and glorious food festivals. Whether you are shopping in supermarkets or local shops, or eating in pubs or restaurants you will be able to enjoy the best of British food during the Fortnight.The ‘Buy British’ message will be promoted in outlets nationwide...

The Soil Association is part of an England-wide partnership programme – ‘Making Local Food Work’ -  with 5 other national organisations, funded by the National Lottery through the Big Lottery Fund, to explore the potential for ‘social enterprise’  to provide greater access to local food. Community Supported Agriculture, buying groups and food co-ops are all types of local food ‘social enterprise’. From April 2008 to March 2012 the Soil Association is running a CSA and organic buying groups project. This project will widely promote the concepts of CSA and organic buying groups, provide practical support to new initiatives and organise...

Welcome to the September edition of the MLFW newsletterSeptember is always a busy month for the programme, as we prepare to wind up the year’s financial and impact reporting, but it also provides an opportunity to look back at what we have achieved.As the second year of MLFW draws to a close, we can already see many examples of community food enterprises supported or inspired by our work, as well as a surge in interest from the Press as people begin to understand the importance of re-connecting with food production and supply. Our message is increasing in popularity, as demonstrated...

The Plunkett Foundation have today made available a guide booklet for prospective local food shop owners. Entitled How to open a local food shop - A guide, it is available to download for free from the Making Local Food Work website. Produced in partnership with River Cottage and written by Ken Parsons of the Rural Shops Alliance, this booklet is intended for people who are thinking about opening a shop, which stocks and sells local produce. Including inspirational case studies, advice and helpful templates, it's just the thing to get you started on the road to having your own local...

Eight primary schools in the Bridport area are celebrating as their innovative hot school meals service has just received national recognition. The service, operated through a partnership with Local Food Links, has been named as a finalist in the prestigious GO Awards for Excellence in Public Procurement. Local Food Link’s Director Tim Crabtree said that everyone was delighted that the Bridport school meals service was being recognised, “Parents made it clear that they wanted to see a school meals service that would create local employment and support food producers in the county. The Bridport schools were therefore reluctant to enter...

Sheila Dillon interviews Kath Dalmeny, Policy Director of Sustain and MLFW Board member, about Local Food initiatives. Listen to the whole report and interview here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/foodprogramme_20080608.shtml