Southern Uplands Partnership | Making Local Food Work

Making Local Food Work

Welcome to the February edition of the Making Local Food Work newsletter.

Communities must be engaged in the future of food
Further steps are needed to engage communities in food production and food security, says Making Local Food Work in response to the recent Government 2030 Food report. Peter Couchman, Chief Executive of the Plunkett Foundation which leads the lottery funded programme said; 'While we welcome this as the first major food report in sixty years, we feel that the vision set out in the report does not reflect the change in the relationships that consumers increasingly want to have with the food they eat and who produces it.'

Making Local Food Works supports community food enterprises such as community supported agriculture, community-owned shops and farmers' markets in areas ranging from sparse rural communities to large cities. He also said: 'The report we feel proposes a 20th century outlook to a 21st century problem. Consumers want to be able to actively shape the future of food. The report largely omits the trend of communities across the UK increasingly taking control of food production and food security through developing direct relationships between the people who produce and consumer food.'

© Making Local Food Work

Don't miss the 2010 Making Local Food Conference
The next Making Local Food Work conference will be held on 5 May in Manchester. The exact venue is yet to be confirmed but it will include a number of guest speakers, informative workshops and an excellent networking opportunity. Further details of this will be in the March newsletter and updated via the website at www.makinglocalfoodwork.co.uk.

Making local food work supplier survey 2010
Making Local Food Work has distributed their most recent survey asking food suppliers about their interest in supplying produce to local shops and retailers. The first areas to be targeted are Yorkshire and Humber and surveys to other regions will be rolled-out over the next few weeks. The results will be collated to assist the team with their ongoing work, connecting local people with locally produced food and to support networks operating within local food supply chains. If you are a food supplier in England who would like to take part in this quick survey, please click www.surveymonkey.com/s/mlfw.
The team would like to thank you in advance for your valued support.

Make fresh local food your new year's resolution
Finding good fresh food at an affordable price is not always easy - that's where Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming can help. A dedicated adviser has now been appointed in every region in England to help people set up food co-ops. By forming a food co-op and pooling their buying power, and ordering direct from local growers and wholesalers, communities can improve their access to a wide range of good food, save money, help the environment, and improve their health and well being. Thanks to funding from the Big Lottery via the Making Local Food Work programme FREE advice is now available on everything you might need to know about setting up a food co-op, such as finding suppliers, buying equipment or recruiting volunteers.

Community-run food co-ops come in all shapes and sizes including buying clubs, bag or box schemes, stalls or shops, and can provide a variety of different foods such as fruit and vegetables, wholefoods, home-made bread or local meat and dairy produce. Sustain have produced a food co-ops toolkit which is FREE to local groups and is also on-line at www.sustainweb.org/foodcoopstoolkit. Support such as 'How to' workshops, training days, exchange visits to other food co-ops, and regional networking events is also available. You can search for your nearest community food co-op on our website at http://www.foodcoops.org/ or if you run a food co-op and are not already listed then you can add your details to our map.
Existing food co-ops can also get support and advice from our project so please get in touch.

For all other queries contact: foodcoops@sustainweb.org or call 020 7837 1228

Food Co-opo case study
NAME: The Greenwich Community Food Co-op (GCFC)

DETAILS: The Greenwich Community Food Co-op (GCFC) is a Limited Company and registered Co-operative which manages eight co-operative market stalls and eight wholesale sites selling fresh fruit and vegetables. It was established to provide communities in areas of Greenwich where there are high levels of deprivation, with improved access to affordable fruit and vegetables. The stalls are established by working in partnership with the local community who volunteer their time to run and manage the stalls. It is a 'project' facilitated by the Greenwich Community Food Initiative established in 2002, as part of the Healthy Greenwich Network. The project builds on the success of the Ferrier Food Co-op and continues the successful partnership between Greenwich Health Development (Greenwich Teaching Primary Care Trust) and Greenwich Co-operative Development Agency (GCDA).

MORE DETAILS: The stalls provide a wide variety of fruit and vegetables (up to 60 different items) which meet the individual needs of the communities they serve and which may vary depending on the diversity of the local population. The food co-op purchases the stock from Spitalfields fruit and vegetable market in East London, two mornings a week, and delivers it to the Telemann Square shop that the GCFC occupies. Here the produce is weighed and priced and individual deliveries are organised. After closing, all surplus stock, stock sheets, cash and scales are collected and returned to the central distribution centre. This process ensures consistency of price borough-wide, and ensures wastage is minimised.

CONTACT: Maresa Bossano at Sustain on 0207 371 228.

Enterprise Support reaches for the stars
The Enterprise Support team of Making Local Food Work is pleased to announce their support for the exciting 'Peoples Supermarket' based in London. Led by charismatic chef and restaurant owner Arthur Potts Dawson, The Peoples Supermarket, currently in planning stages, aims to change the way we shop and how we buy food. This is a supermarket that is run by the people, for the people, selling the best food at the lowest possible prices and is based on a tried and tested model from America, this community owned supermarket will be staffed largely by volunteer members, who will enjoy discounted shopping in return for a few hours work each month. Making Local Food Work consultant Maurice McCartney has been working with them to fine tune the business plan prior to submission to potential funders. Arthur Potts Dawson told us that "Maurice has been extremely helpful since joining in the FUN!"

Local Food, Local Shops
Following a successful pilot stage working with 13 Community-owned and commercial village shops last year, January 2010 marked the rollout of the Look for Local scheme, wants to work with a further 100 shops between now and September. The first regional meeting took place in January in Nottinghamshire, which provided an opportunity for village shops to discuss and learn about how to increase their local food offering and to look at ways of working more collaboratively within their sector. Other discussions were based around how local food can make a real difference to shops, strengths and weaknesses in the local food network and on how best to discover new suppliers. The event was a real success. If you'd like to take part in the next one then get in touch with Nicole Hamilton on 01993 810730 or email Nicole.hamilton@plunkett.co.uk who'll be pleased to hear from you!

Food and farming news
Farmers' markets, coops and repair shops will seed the new economy
It's called the 'Cinderella economy'. You know it as the local, sustainable businesses that don't make the GDP figures soar, but do provide jobs and glue communities together.

Society is faced with a profound dilemma. To resist growth is to risk economic and social collapse. To pursue it relentlessly is to endanger the ecosystems on which we depend for long-term survival. For the most part, this dilemma goes unrecognised in mainstream policy. It's only marginally more visible as a public debate. When reality begins to impinge on the collective consciousness, the best suggestion to hand is that we can somehow 'decouple' growth from its material impacts. And continue to do so while the economy expands exponentially. The sheer scale of action implied by this is daunting. In a world of 9 billion people all aspiring to western lifestyles, the carbon intensity of every dollar of output must be at least 130 times lower in 2050 than it is today. By the end of the century, economic activity will need to be taking carbon out of the atmosphere not adding to it. Never mind that no-one knows what such an economy looks like. Never mind that decoupling isn't happening at anything like that scale. Never mind that all our institutions and incentive structures continually point in the wrong direction. The dilemma, once recognised, looms so dangerously over.

© The Ecologist

Inner-city Farms
Farm aid, the annual concert dedicated to raising funds for the American family farmer, has been held in such agricultural strongholds as Manor, Texas, and Ames, Iowa. But the most recent venue, the distinctly non-rural borough of Manhattan, is not as incongruous as it seems. With its estimated 600 small-scale farms (which are often large-scale vegetable gardens), New York City is part of an urban agricultural boom in the U.S. where rising food and fuel prices are making city farming seem less and less outlandish.

In July volunteers began transforming the front lawns of San Francisco's city hall into the first edible offerings on that site since 1943, when civilians across the country were encouraged to aid the war effort by growing victory gardens.

These days, urban gardeners are waging lots of different wars--against global warming, foreign-oil dependence, processed food, obesity and neighborhood blight. Turning an old parking lot into a working farm not only helps reduce a city's carbon footprint but can also generate revenue for a down-and-out part of town. To demonstrate how much food can be grown in a small space, a 2006 pilot project on a sub-acre lot on the outskirts of Philadelphia hauled in $67,000 from crops like salad greens and baby vegetables.
Click here to read more.

Events

LET'S GET TOGETHER - EDEN PROJECT, CORNWALL
Bring the Spring in with a swing by visiting two networking events for growing collaboration members and supporters, on Friday 5 March from 12.00 - 17.15pm at the Eden Project. The aim of this is to increase delivery and improve outcomes for all through growing, preparing and eating food within sustainable communities and includes a number of interesting and informative workshops and presentations. Setting up a food co-op, growing food at home, setting up an allotment and community supported agriculture will form just some of what's to be discovered. For more information on attending email: estsome@cornwall.nhs.uk. Places are limited so book fast!

GOVERNANCE FOR FOOD SOCIAL ENTERPRISES
A list of training events from Making Local Food Work partners Co-operativesUK includes some cracking courses up and down the country including:

Simply Legal - 11th February - Oxford
All you need to know about legal forms and organisational types for community food enterprises.
Download your copy at www.cooperatives-uk.coop/simplylegal.

Members, Meetings and Decision Making - 17th February - London, SE11
A workshop to explore strategies for an engaged membership, effective meetings and decision making in a community food enterprise

Strictly Boardroom - 17th March - Manchester
Develop your knowledge and skills to ensure your governing body is more effective and accountable

Simply Legal - 31st March - Nottingham
All you need to know about legal forms and organisational types for community food enterprises- to tie in with our new publication: Download your copy at www.cooperatives-uk.coop/simplylegal.

Conflict Resolution - 14th April, - Leicester
Taking a step back, taking a step forward. Identifying conflict, its impact and methods of response

Simply Governance - 28th April - Northampton
An overview of the structures, systems and processes concerned with running a sustainable community food enterprise.

All workshops are full days from 10am to 4pm with lunch provided and are free of charge if you are a development worker or involved with a community food enterprise.

Places for the training days are limited and these workshops are often oversubscribed so please visit www.mlfw.co.uk/training to book your place or for more training courses.

FOOD CO-OPERATIVES FORUM
Co-operativesUK would like to invite you to the Food Co-operatives Forum.

This event is being run by the membership team and Making Local Food Work project workers and will be held at the Birmingham Midlands Institute on the 12th February 2010.

The day will be chaired by Kath Dalmeny from Sustain who will share the key note speaking with Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Co-operativesUK. This networking event will include workshops and case studies enabling attendees to share best practice and embrace the co-operative principle of 'co-operation among co-operatives'. This is a free event and the day will run from 10.30 to 4.30 with lunch supplied by the Warehouse Café, a vegetarian and vegan café based at Friends of the Earth. To book your place, please fill in the booking form by clicking the link. If you are staying in Birmingham overnight on the 12th February please let us know as we will be organising a social event to enable people to continue networking.

For further information and the Making Local Food Work project please contact Zena King our Legal and Project Support Officer: 0161 246 2953 or email zena.king@cooperatives-uk.coop.

Useful links
A web page has been introduced by the Department for Communities & Local Government (CLG) which outlines the policy areas for the Working Group on Traditional Retail Markets. FARMA is represented as one of the four organisations which formed the Retail Markets Alliance (RMA) and speaks on behalf of farmers' markets. The Working Group on Traditional Retail Markets will meet three times during 2010 (March, June and October) with ongoing work in between. The Group will initially focus on two main areas of work including: developing a good practice guide for market managers, trader representatives and private market managers and helping new market business start-ups and developing entrepreneurship.

For further details email Gareth Jones at gareth@farma.org.uk.




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Making Local Food Work Welcome to the February edition of the Making Local Food Work newsletter. Communities must be engaged in the future of food Further steps are needed to engage communities in food production and food security, says Making Local Food Work in response to the recent Government 2030 Food report. Peter Couchman, Chief Executive of the Plunkett Foundation which leads the lottery funded programme said; 'While we welcome this as the first major food report in sixty years, we feel that the vision set out in the report does not reflect the change in the relationships that consumers increasingly want to have with the food they eat and who produces it.' Making Local Food Works supports community food enterprises such as community supported agriculture, community-owned shops and farmers' markets in areas ranging from sparse rural communities to large cities. He also said: 'The report we feel proposes a 20th century outlook to a 21st century problem. Consumers want to be able to actively shape the future of food. The report largely omits the trend of communities across the UK increasingly taking control of food production and food security through developing direct relationships between the people who produce and consumer food.' © Making Local Food Work Don't miss the 2010 Making Local Food Conference The next Making Local Food Work conference will be held on 5 May in Manchester. The exact venue is yet to be confirmed but it will include a number of guest speakers, informative workshops and an excellent networking opportunity. Further details of this will be in the March newsletter and updated via the website at www.makinglocalfoodwork.co.uk. Making local food work supplier survey 2010 Making Local Food Work has distributed their most recent survey asking food suppliers about their interest in supplying produce to local shops and retailers. The first areas to be targeted are Yorkshire and Humber and surveys to other regions will be rolled-out over the next few weeks. The results will be collated to assist the team with their ongoing work, connecting local people with locally produced food and to support networks operating within local food supply chains. If you are a food supplier in England who would like to take part in this quick survey, please click www.surveymonkey.com/s/mlfw. The team would like to thank you in advance for your valued support. Make fresh local food your new year's resolution Finding good fresh food at an affordable price is not always easy - that's where Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming can help. A dedicated adviser has now been appointed in every region in England to help people set up food co-ops. By forming a food co-op and pooling their buying power, and ordering direct from local growers and wholesalers, communities can improve their access to a wide range of good food, save money, help the environment, and improve their health and well being. Thanks to funding from the Big Lottery via the Making Local Food Work programme FREE advice is now available on everything you might need to know about setting up a food co-op, such as finding suppliers, buying equipment or recruiting volunteers. Community-run food co-ops come in all shapes and sizes including buying clubs, bag or box schemes, stalls or shops, and can provide a variety of different foods such as fruit and vegetables, wholefoods, home-made bread or local meat and dairy produce. Sustain have produced a food co-ops toolkit which is FREE to local groups and is also on-line at www.sustainweb.org/foodcoopstoolkit. Support such as 'How to' workshops, training days, exchange visits to other food co-ops, and regional networking events is also available. You can search for your nearest community food co-op on our website at http://www.foodcoops.org/ or if you run a food co-op and are not already listed then you can add your details to our map. Existing food co-ops can also get support and advice from our project so please get in touch. For all other queries contact: foodcoops@sustainweb.org or call 020 7837 1228 Food Co-opo case study NAME: The Greenwich Community Food Co-op (GCFC) DETAILS: The Greenwich Community Food Co-op (GCFC) is a Limited Company and registered Co-operative which manages eight co-operative market stalls and eight wholesale sites selling fresh fruit and vegetables. It was established to provide communities in areas of Greenwich where there are high levels of deprivation, with improved access to affordable fruit and vegetables. The stalls are established by working in partnership with the local community who volunteer their time to run and manage the stalls. It is a 'project' facilitated by the Greenwich Community Food Initiative established in 2002, as part of the Healthy Greenwich Network. The project builds on the success of the Ferrier Food Co-op and continues the successful partnership between Greenwich Health Development (Greenwich Teaching Primary Care Trust) and Greenwich Co-operative Development Agency (GCDA). MORE DETAILS: The stalls provide a wide variety of fruit and vegetables (up to 60 different items) which meet the individual needs of the communities they serve and which may vary depending on the diversity of the local population. The food co-op purchases the stock from Spitalfields fruit and vegetable market in East London, two mornings a week, and delivers it to the Telemann Square shop that the GCFC occupies. Here the produce is weighed and priced and individual deliveries are organised. After closing, all surplus stock, stock sheets, cash and scales are collected and returned to the central distribution centre. This process ensures consistency of price borough-wide, and ensures wastage is minimised. CONTACT: Maresa Bossano at Sustain on 0207 371 228. Enterprise Support reaches for the stars The Enterprise Support team of Making Local Food Work is pleased to announce their support for the exciting 'Peoples Supermarket' based in London. Led by charismatic chef and restaurant owner Arthur Potts Dawson, The Peoples Supermarket, currently in planning stages, aims to change the way we shop and how we buy food. This is a supermarket that is run by the people, for the people, selling the best food at the lowest possible prices and is based on a tried and tested model from America, this community owned supermarket will be staffed largely by volunteer members, who will enjoy discounted shopping in return for a few hours work each month. Making Local Food Work consultant Maurice McCartney has been working with them to fine tune the business plan prior to submission to potential funders. Arthur Potts Dawson told us that "Maurice has been extremely helpful since joining in the FUN!" Local Food, Local Shops Following a successful pilot stage working with 13 Community-owned and commercial village shops last year, January 2010 marked the rollout of the Look for Local scheme, wants to work with a further 100 shops between now and September. The first regional meeting took place in January in Nottinghamshire, which provided an opportunity for village shops to discuss and learn about how to increase their local food offering and to look at ways of working more collaboratively within their sector. Other discussions were based around how local food can make a real difference to shops, strengths and weaknesses in the local food network and on how best to discover new suppliers. The event was a real success. If you'd like to take part in the next one then get in touch with Nicole Hamilton on 01993 810730 or email Nicole.hamilton@plunkett.co.uk who'll be pleased to hear from you! Food and farming news Farmers' markets, coops and repair shops will seed the new economy It's called the 'Cinderella economy'. You know it as the local, sustainable businesses that don't make the GDP figures soar, but do provide jobs and glue communities together. Society is faced with a profound dilemma. To resist growth is to risk economic and social collapse. To pursue it relentlessly is to endanger the ecosystems on which we depend for long-term survival. For the most part, this dilemma goes unrecognised in mainstream policy. It's only marginally more visible as a public debate. When reality begins to impinge on the collective consciousness, the best suggestion to hand is that we can somehow 'decouple' growth from its material impacts. And continue to do so while the economy expands exponentially. The sheer scale of action implied by this is daunting. In a world of 9 billion people all aspiring to western lifestyles, the carbon intensity of every dollar of output must be at least 130 times lower in 2050 than it is today. By the end of the century, economic activity will need to be taking carbon out of the atmosphere not adding to it. Never mind that no-one knows what such an economy looks like. Never mind that decoupling isn't happening at anything like that scale. Never mind that all our institutions and incentive structures continually point in the wrong direction. The dilemma, once recognised, looms so dangerously over. © The Ecologist Inner-city Farms Farm aid, the annual concert dedicated to raising funds for the American family farmer, has been held in such agricultural strongholds as Manor, Texas, and Ames, Iowa. But the most recent venue, the distinctly non-rural borough of Manhattan, is not as incongruous as it seems. With its estimated 600 small-scale farms (which are often large-scale vegetable gardens), New York City is part of an urban agricultural boom in the U.S. where rising food and fuel prices are making city farming seem less and less outlandish. In July volunteers began transforming the front lawns of San Francisco's city hall into the first edible offerings on that site since 1943, when civilians across the country were encouraged to aid the war effort by growing victory gardens. These days, urban gardeners are waging lots of different wars--against global warming, foreign-oil dependence, processed food, obesity and neighborhood blight. Turning an old parking lot into a working farm not only helps reduce a city's carbon footprint but can also generate revenue for a down-and-out part of town. To demonstrate how much food can be grown in a small space, a 2006 pilot project on a sub-acre lot on the outskirts of Philadelphia hauled in $67,000 from crops like salad greens and baby vegetables. Click here to read more. © Time Magazine Events LET'S GET TOGETHER - EDEN PROJECT, CORNWALL Bring the Spring in with a swing by visiting two networking events for growing collaboration members and supporters, on Friday 5 March from 12.00 - 17.15pm at the Eden Project. The aim of this is to increase delivery and improve outcomes for all through growing, preparing and eating food within sustainable communities and includes a number of interesting and informative workshops and presentations. Setting up a food co-op, growing food at home, setting up an allotment and community supported agriculture will form just some of what's to be discovered. For more information on attending email: estsome@cornwall.nhs.uk. Places are limited so book fast! GOVERNANCE FOR FOOD SOCIAL ENTERPRISES A list of training events from Making Local Food Work partners Co-operativesUK includes some cracking courses up and down the country including: Simply Legal - 11th February - Oxford All you need to know about legal forms and organisational types for community food enterprises. Download your copy at www.cooperatives-uk.coop/simplylegal. Members, Meetings and Decision Making - 17th February - London, SE11 A workshop to explore strategies for an engaged membership, effective meetings and decision making in a community food enterprise Strictly Boardroom - 17th March - Manchester Develop your knowledge and skills to ensure your governing body is more effective and accountable Simply Legal - 31st March - Nottingham All you need to know about legal forms and organisational types for community food enterprises- to tie in with our new publication: Download your copy at www.cooperatives-uk.coop/simplylegal. Conflict Resolution - 14th April, - Leicester Taking a step back, taking a step forward. Identifying conflict, its impact and methods of response Simply Governance - 28th April - Northampton An overview of the structures, systems and processes concerned with running a sustainable community food enterprise. All workshops are full days from 10am to 4pm with lunch provided and are free of charge if you are a development worker or involved with a community food enterprise. Places for the training days are limited and these workshops are often oversubscribed so please visit www.mlfw.co.uk/training to book your place or for more training courses. FOOD CO-OPERATIVES FORUM Co-operativesUK would like to invite you to the Food Co-operatives Forum. This event is being run by the membership team and Making Local Food Work project workers and will be held at the Birmingham Midlands Institute on the 12th February 2010. The day will be chaired by Kath Dalmeny from Sustain who will share the key note speaking with Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Co-operativesUK. This networking event will include workshops and case studies enabling attendees to share best practice and embrace the co-operative principle of 'co-operation among co-operatives'. This is a free event and the day will run from 10.30 to 4.30 with lunch supplied by the Warehouse Café, a vegetarian and vegan café based at Friends of the Earth. To book your place, please fill in the booking form by clicking the link. If you are staying in Birmingham overnight on the 12th February please let us know as we will be organising a social event to enable people to continue networking. For further information and the Making Local Food Work project please contact Zena King our Legal and Project Support Officer: 0161 246 2953 or email zena.king@cooperatives-uk.coop. Useful links A web page has been introduced by the Department for Communities & Local Government (CLG) which outlines the policy areas for the Working Group on Traditional Retail Markets. FARMA is represented as one of the four organisations which formed the Retail Markets Alliance (RMA) and speaks on behalf of farmers' markets. The Working Group on Traditional Retail Markets will meet three times during 2010 (March, June and October) with ongoing work in between. The Group will initially focus on two main areas of work including: developing a good practice guide for market managers, trader representatives and private market managers and helping new market business start-ups and developing entrepreneurship. For further details email Gareth Jones at gareth@farma.org.uk. © FARMA		Map Geology History The Uplands Forest & Woodlands Rolling Farmland Watery Habitats Towns & Villages Employment Leisure Nature Based Tourism Trail Riding What People Say Find Out More Credits Links