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England has a long and proud history of producing incredibly diverse and delicious local food. In many ways, this food tells the story of its surroundings and it’s very much part of our cultural heritage. Local food production is often the culmination of years of knowledge and expertise that’s passed down through generations, and as such, it’s something that should be appreciated and protected.
Unfortunately, however, as independent retail outlets disappear, small producers are losing valuable marketing opportunities and have become increasingly isolated from consumers. Most are simply too small to distribute and market their produce effectively and have frustratingly few affordable ways of connecting with consumers.
If you're a food producer, we don't need to tell you of the financial advantages of selling directly to local consumers, but there are also many other benefits for the community, local economy, environment and the consumers themselves.
Making Local Food Work is helping to develop and to champion six community enterprise models for getting more local food onto more people's plates:
The Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) approach is based on mutual support between farmers and consumers in which people are investing in their local farm in return for a share of the harvest. As well as reconnecting people with the land and their food, it can give farmers and food growers a secure income and also helps to create a sense of community. The Soil Association is providing training, advice and support, case studies and technical information to those looking to develop a local CSA scheme.
Food Co-ops and Buying Groups are schemes in which, by buying food in bulk direct from suppliers, groups such as residents associations, community groups or parents at a local school can benefit by getting good food at a more affordable price. Sustain, in partnership with several other organisations, is developing a range of resources, such as toolkits, educational leaflets and marketing materials, to help food co-ops start up or build on their successes. Sustain will also organise various events to enable groups around the country to share good ideas on what works to create flourishing food co-ops.
Distribution costs can be a major barrier to the sale of local food, and so Sustain is working with local Food Distribution and Supply projects in urban and rural locations around England, to increase and improve the supply of fresh, seasonal produce. These can include providing local food for school meals, or running a fruit and veg delivery service. Learning from these projects, Sustain will also publish advice and guidance on the best ways community enterprises can tackle distribution issues. This will be based on research into existing projects throughout the country, with many opportunities for sharing and learning from good ideas.
For the past ten years, farmers’ markets have been bringing producers and customers together on a regular basis. Co-operative Farmers' Markets allow the producers to own, control and gain more benefit from the markets they attend and so, with plenty of demand for more farmers’ markets, Plunkett and the National Farmers’ Retail and Markets Association (FARMA) are developing a support package to help set up an run co-operatively-run farmers’ market groups that will benefit producers and consumers.
Sustainable Home-Produced Food: Members of Country Markets Ltd sell their high quality home-made, home-baked or home-grown produce directly to the public at approximately 450 weekly co-operatively run Country Markets, and at farmers’ markets and special events. By working with producers and advisers, providing toolkits and training, the aim of this project is to develop a market for selling their produce through community-focused shops and other retail outlets throughout the country.
Local shops are often the heart of the community and the Community Shops & Local Food project aims to help community-run and traditional independent shops to stock and sell more locally produced food, thereby also creating valuable retail outlets for small-scale producers. The Plunkett Foundation will offer a toolkit backed up by expert support on everything from building relationships with producers, to merchandising, storage and marketing.
How to get involved...
If you are interested in finding out how these models can provide a market for your produce, or if you think you might get involved in setting one up, please see our project pages or contact us for more information.
