An Eden Project Field Guide to community food projects

1
Community
Food Projects
An Eden Project Field Guide to

Maria Devereaux
Maria is passionate about good food. She has been an organic food
grower for over 20 years and involved in community food projects for
the last seven. The issue of sustainable food is close to her heart having
been the Chief Exec of Slow Food UK and set up a successful local, not
for profit veg bag scheme in SE London. A qualified social and therapeutic
horticulturalist, she is currently working on the Growing Health project at
Sustain. Maria is at her happiest in the garden or kitchen.
Clare Horrell
Clare Horrell has been involved in growing, selling and sharing food for
much of her life. She’s been working with community food projects for
the last seven years and before that co-owned and ran a restaurant and
also helped set up a volunteer run fair trade cafe. She’s covered most
fruit known to man with crumble.
Sustain
The alliance for better food and farming advocates food and agriculture
policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people
and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society
and culture and promote equity. Sustain represents around 100 national
public interest organisations working at international, national, regional
and local level.
Images: fergusburnett.com, Christian Sinibaldi, Roberto Verzo, Eden
Project, Mindfreeze, Gemma Billings, Jessica Spengler, Nana Cafe,
FoodCycle, Tom Griffiths, Big Lunch, Growing Communities, Apples for
Eggs, Sustain, Emma Gunn.
This book has been produced for the
Big Lunch Extras programme — the
Eden Project’s way of supporting and
enabling people to become more active
within their communities and deliver
the social change they want to see.
About the authors
Eden Project Publications
Published by Eden Project Publications. © 2015 2nd Edition.
Designed by Paul Barrett, Duncan Watt and Robin Owen.
Edited by Robert Lowe, Juliet Rose, and Mike Petty.

Community
Food Projects
An Eden Project Field Guide to
Maria Devereaux & Clare Horrell

Foreword
Everyone is interested in food. It’s a basic human
requirement, but it’s more than just fuel to us – it’s
a common need that can provide common ground
between us. It also carries powerful personal and cultural
associations for many of us. And yet people are getting
increasingly disconnected from their dinners.
At Eden we take our food very seriously. We have
welcomed over 15 million visitors to our site in Cornwall,
home to the widest collection of food plants on display in
any garden, botanic or otherwise –in the world. We work
hard to support local supply chains and run campaigns
such as the Big Lunch which actively encourage people to
grow, cook and eat together.
Improving our understanding and having more control
over where our food comes from can help to strengthen
our communities and reduce our impact on the
environment by giving us greater self-determination over
the quality of what we eat and where we source it from.
Getting involved in community food projects also has a
myriad of other benefits that can reduce social isolation,
improve health or just give people a good time.
We have chosen to work with Sustain to produce this
book because of their wealth of experience in supporting
community food projects. In it you will find a host of ideas
to get you thinking, bite-sized explanations about how
they might work and signposts to where you can follow
them up in more detail.
So grab a biscuit, curl up on the sofa and have a read –
who knows where it might lead?
The Eden Team
4

Contents
Community food projects 6
Deciding what to do 12
Growing Food 18
Be enterprising 40
Make something 62
Sharing and celebrating 76
Conclusion 88
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Community
food projects
What are they and why get involved?
Food is a great way to bring people together in your
community. Even if they don’t buy or prepare their
own food, everyone eats it! The different ways in
which food is produced, moved, sold and consumed
can provide ideas for possible projects in your area.
You can get your local community growing, cooking
and sharing food that is not only good for them, but
also the environment.
There are many fantastic examples of community
food projects across the country, which are often
about more than just food. Many of them also aim
to improve the community and the environment.
Projects are often set up to create an alternative to
the way most people shop, cook and eat or to learn
new skills. Community food projects are all about
allowing local people to take control of where their
food comes from and connecting them with each
other and where they live. A food project is a great
way to get everyone involved, bring communities
together, helping to create a sense of local pride.
7

By working together, people can influence and improve every
aspect of the way food is made, supplied and prepared in their
community. This guide will provide you with some ideas and
examples of what you could do locally and examples of what
other communities have done.
This could include a community garden or orchard, growing
food at home on a windowsill, working with local farmers
to guarantee a market for their produce, planting food on
roundabouts, or finding it for free in the local park. However
you do it, tasty, locally grown fruit and veg are best.
Making food and sharing or selling it brings people together
and can help create local jobs and businesses. As a group
you could set up a co-op, buying in bulk to make food
more affordable. You might consider setting up a farmers’
market, local veg box scheme or maybe a community shop
or cafe as a focal point for the neighbourhood.
If you are buying locally produced ingredients or growing
them yourself then you could process them to preserve
them for longer. There is a long and proud tradition of
making jams and chutneys in this country. Or you could
turn a passion for making bread or cakes into a local
business. Also think about what happens to waste food,
which could be redistributed to charities, turned into other
things like juices and jams or even composted communally.
Food brings people together and can provide a real focal
point for a variety of activities. From street parties to
cooking clubs, food can be shared, enjoyed and celebrated.
Growing Food
Be enterprising
Make something
Sharing and celebrating
8

Setting up a community food project in your area can
have widespread benefits for you, the community and the
environment. Be creative: there are heaps of rewards in setting
up and running a project in your area.
using local green spaces or unloved areas to create
projects that build the knowledge and skills to grow
fresh, local, seasonal food
developing local enterprises and jobs around the
growing and processing of food
creating opportunities for people to learn and to
involve schools and young people
linking local people making food (producers), selling
food (retailers) and those who buy it (shoppers)
promoting healthy living and improving
general wellbeing
ensuring money is spent and stays in the
local economy
sharing and celebrating food.
How about
Community benefits
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How it helps individuals and the community, e.g. health and
wellbeing, shared ownership and decision making, buiding a
community that includes everyone.
Benefits to your local area, the land, animals and wildlife
plus connecting people with where they live, the land,
and nature.
Better tasting, fresher food which can be more nutritious
and better for you.
Spending money with local food projects helps support
local jobs and your local economy, food could also be
more affordable.
Acquiring new skills, training others or giving people useful
work experience.
People
Environment
Taste
Money
Learning
Throughout this guide we will look at how projects can help
your community and we’ve ranked each scheme with the top
icons that we think apply to it.
Icons and ranking in this guide
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There is also an additional icon for each section letting
you know whether the ideas that are easy, bit harder
or need more experience to do. This will help with your
planning and help identify the sort of people and skills you
might need.
Difficulty
People Can be run by
one person
Could do with more
than one person
Needs a group of
people to run it
Money Simple
spreadsheet of
costs and income
Bit more complex
accounting/basic
knowledge of
Excel would be
useful. Some basic
knowledge of how
to account for costs
Requires some
basic knowledge
of accounting and
managing costs/
use of Excel. Might
need a database for
monitoring orders and
an online method for
taking payment. May
need some capital to
get started
Equipment Limited or no extra
equipment needed
May need a few
things that aren’t
always readily
available
Will need some
equipment which is
sometimes specialised
Legal Stuff Some regulations
and permits may
be needed. No
legal structure
required. Insurance
Some regulations
and permits likely.
May need to have
a formal legal
structure. Insurance
Regulations and permits
needed. May need to
have a formal legal
structure. Insurance
Space Can be run from
your home
Needs some
storage/premises
Needs warehouse/
shop/community
space/market space to
operate from
Transport Customers come
to you
You may need to
deliver to a drop
off point
Customers may collect
direct from you or you
may need to deliver to a
market/drop off point/
individual customers
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Deciding what
to do
As with any project you will need to look what’s
appropriate for your local area. Here are some of the
things you should consider before starting on your
voyage into food.
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Involve other local people at the outset and use and
develop their skills and knowledge. Find out who has an
interest in food locally and any experience or skills in this
area. Does your neighbour enjoy making jam? Are there
allotments nearby? Where is your nearest farm? This might
help trigger some great ideas and get people involved in
helping to start something off.
Review what local food is already available. Do you have
a bakery? Where do people buy their veg from at the
moment? Are they any gaps or opportunities? Use this info
to help plan a potential project.
What’s worked in other neighbourhoods like yours? Are
there organisations that might be able to offer advice
and information or even training? Make contact and ask
questions, visit other projects. Learn from other people’s
successes and mistakes!
What resources does your neighbourhood have already
and what you need to make your project work? Think
about space, time, expertise, money and equipment. Is
there a derelict piece of local land you could use to grow
veg? Does the church hall have a kitchen you could use to
make food or use as a community shop? Are there local
businesses you could work with? Walk around your local
area and ask.
Create a group to get things started
Identify the need
Look at other local food projects
Use what’s already available in your community
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What would they like to do? What would benefit the local
area most? Do they want to be able to buy local fruit, learn
about beekeeping, cut their food bill or learn how to cook?
Call a meeting, get people together, write a questionnaire,
ask some simple questions with some ideas. This will help
you set your aims and objectives and plan next steps.
How much time do you have? If you want to do something
quick and relatively simple to get people thinking about
local food issues, then maybe think about encouraging
people to compost their food waste. More ambitious ideas
like a veg box scheme could take up to a year as it involves
buying, packing, distribution, marketing and collecting
money. Don’t worry if it doesn’t all go according to plan!
There might be a few niggles along the way but hang in
there as it will be worth it.
How are you going to let people know about the food
project? Plan a launch, hold an event, think about how
you could advertise it, do you need a regular newsletter or
Facebook page or just a one-off poster? Not everyone can
use a computer so use a mix of ways to keep everyone up
to date. Think about where people pick up info and read
stuff. Maybe the local library, school or paper?
Ask the local community
Be realistic
Keep the community informed
15

Build on your achievements. Are there other areas of good
food you could be addressing? If you launch a community
cafe think what happens to any wasted food? Could a local
charity use it? Could the local school use the cafe to learn
about running a business? Think about the wider community
benefits of your project and take a look at The Sustain Guide
to Good Food to see what else you could be doing.
Think about the next stage. If you set up your food project
with some initial funding try and make sure it can continue
and you can cover the ongoing running costs, if there are
any. A local food co-op could have community shares,
think about local fundraising for a community garden and
ask local businesses for support with equipment. If you
have a one-off event, how about organising it annually so
that people look forward to it?
Remember: good food should taste great, so use any
excuse to share it with others. Do you have a mix of
different cultures in your neighbourhood that could
exchange ingredients or recipes? Is your area well known
for some kind of food or could you make it famous for
something? How about celebrating the launch of your
project with a party using locally grown food? Organise
celebrations around regular events like bonfire night for
example. Share food, stimulate your taste buds and
have fun.
Expand your project
Plan for the future
Enjoy local food
The next four chapters will look at the types of community
food projects you could do, with some great examples of
what others have done. Do try and share what you end up
doing, by writing an article for a relevant publication or
providing information on a website as it might help others in
the future.
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Growing food
Growing your own food can be very rewarding, and
setting up a community garden is a popular way of
getting people involved, even if you aren’t an expert
yourself. However, growing food could just mean
encouraging people to grow something edible in
their front garden, like the Food Up Front project, or
involve working with a farm nearby to supply local
veg like like the Chagfood project in Devon. This
community market garden was an idea that came out
of a public meeting where they wanted to shorten the
distance between its producers and consumers.
In this section are some examples of the sorts of
projects you could get off the ground.
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A community food garden is a piece of land gardened by a
group of people. The land can be publicly or privately owned
but is generally managed by local people. Community gardens
come in all different shapes and sizes and can be located
anywhere in the community. You could set one up on a vacant
or derelict piece of land, in a park, school, housing estate, on
an allotment or even a roof like Food From the Sky, which
was situated on the roof of a supermarket. The veg, fruit and
herbs they grew were sold below in the supermarket, only
ten metres from soil to shelf. You can’t get much more local
than that! Why not organise a walk around your local area
to identify land that you could use? The Community Land
Advisory Service can provide advice.
Community gardens are set up for a variety of
reasons. Some may be primarily used to grow food
for the gardeners and/or the surrounding community,
others to grow and sell food, to help pay for plants
and seeds, while others might also be intended to
enable people to learn or even improve their health.
Sydenham Garden in south-east London was a
community project set up initially in a GP’s garden
and then on a derelict nature reserve to help people
with mental health problems to recover. Maybe you
could work with your local hospital or health centre to
develop a community garden?
You might also want to think about how the garden
works and is designed. Some community gardens have
Community food garden
Getting started
Difficulty: Benefits:
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plots that are gardened collectively, others are split into
individual plots but often with a common area.
There are all sorts of reasons for setting up a food growing
garden. It might be a combination of things such as
providing affordable, local, seasonal produce and helping
improve the area, developing a sense of community or
helping people understand where their food comes from.
They are also excellent wildlife habitats.
What about helping people’s physical health and wellbeing
by not only having fresh food, but also by providing a place
for exercise and to help reduce stress? These are just a
few of the many benefits of community gardening. If you
want some more info then take a look at a few of the
Sustain publications such as Growing Success.
People – A group willing to get their hands dirty
Space – A plot you can grow things on
Legal – You may need some advice about getting permission to use the space
Equipment – You will need some gardening tools, seeds and normally some
compost to get you growing
Things you might need
Food From the Sky – www.foodfromthesky.org.uk
Sydenham Garden – www.sydenhamgarden.org.uk
Sustain – www.sustainweb.org/publications
Incredible Edible Network - www.incredibleediblenetwork.org.uk
Edible Estates - www.edibleestates.co.uk
Big Dig - www.bigdig.org.uk
Capital Growth - www.capitalgrowth.org
Federation of City Farms Community Gardens - www.farmgarden.org.uk
Community Land Advisory Service - www.communitylandadvice.org.uk
Further reading and resources
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23
Cranbrook Community Garden
Cranbrook Community Garden started on a neglected
play park which had become a rubbish dump, piled high
with discarded furniture, old gates, and prams. With
funding from the council and from Sustain’s Capital
Growth project, local residents have transformed the
space into a growing area of over 2,000m2
with 20
raised beds, a greenhouse and a patio area. Vegetables
are grown all year round which reflect the ethnic
diversity of the residents involved such as Bangladeshi
pumpkins and lal shak (amaranth). Local people and
a shopkeeper donate food waste to make fertiliser
and the group hold garden open days to encourage
residents of the estate to come and see the garden and
to recruit new members.

If you want to do things on a slightly larger scale, then
consider developing a new allotment site. An allotment is
an area of land, leased to an individual or family for growing
fruit, veg and flowers, usually for private use. Sometimes the
land is also used for keeping chickens, rabbits and bees. The
individual gardeners are usually organised in an allotment
association, which leases or is granted the land from an
owner. In turn the gardeners have to pay a small membership
fee to the association.
Many existing allotments are owned by local councils
but some are on private sites. Many parts of the country,
especially in urban areas, now have long waiting lists – so this
is often a good reason to set one up. Councils have a legal
obligation to provide allotments and the National Society
for Allotment and Leisure Gardeners has a leaflet on their
website describing basic allotment legislation. The campaign
group, Allot More Allotments also provides some useful
steps on getting land. It is often best to be proactive and
identify pieces of land that could be turned into allotments.
That way you can approach either the council or a private
landowner who might rent you the land, such as farmers,
waterways, railways, churches, schools and the National
Trust. In Crewkerne, Somerset, an overgrown piece of land
was cleared in 2011 and leased from a private landlord who
wanted to see the land put to good use. Have a think about
how you might split the land into manageable plots, maybe
have different sizes to cater for people’s needs – a large plot
can sometimes be a bit daunting to start off with.
Getting started
Allotments
24

People – interested individuals and families who want their own plot and happy to
form an association
Space – a piece of land
Legal – you may need some advice about getting permission to use or rent the land
The National Allotment Society – www.nsalg.org.uk
Allot More Allotments – www.allotmoreallotments.org.uk
How to start an Allotment – www.channel4.com/programmes/river-cottage/
articles/all/how-to-start-an-allotment
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You might want to specialise and set up a community orchard.
They are often open to the public and usually owned or leased
for, or by, the community, parish council, local authority or
voluntary body. Unlike a commercial or traditional orchard, the
value of the fruit is not necessarily the main motive and many
have been set up because of the loss of orchards across the
UK. About two thirds of Britain’s orchards have been lost since
1960. Fewer orchards has meant fewer local varieties of fruit
and the loss of recipes, songs, customs, social gatherings and
the sharing of skills of pruning, grafting and growing.
Community orchards
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Get your local community to decide how and why they
wish to manage an orchard. Maybe it’s to grow and save
local or unusual varieties of apples, pears, cherries or
plums In 1992, the charity Common Ground established
the idea of community orchards and since then several
hundred have been set up, so there are plenty of
examples which can be found on the county gazetteer
on their website. Common Ground also provides a
range of useful information through its website and
several publications.
Community orchards are also excellent places for people
to get together, and like gardens, can be the focal point
for community activities, events or festivals or just a green
space in which to relax. Horfield Organic Community
Orchard in Bristol was set up on overgrown allotment
land in 1998 and now has over 100 apple, pear, plum and
nut trees, plus soft fruit. It hosts schools visits and holds
regular sales of produce.
People – members of the community willing to get involved
Space – a piece of land, either with existing orchard on or a space big enough to
plant some fruit and nut trees
Legal – you may need some advice about getting permission to use or rent the land
Equipment – garden equipment to maintain the trees
Common Ground – www.commonground.org.uk
Horfield Organic Community Orchard – www.community-orchard.org.uk
How to start a community orchard – www.gov.uk/government/publications/
community-orchards-a-how-to-guide
Urban Orchard Project – www.theurbanorchardproject.org
Getting started
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A slightly different approach to food growing in the
community is to encourage people to grow food in their
own gardens or even windowsills by providing advice and
maybe organising the swapping of seeds or gluts of veg.
Some people, however, don’t like gardening or can’t garden
due to ill health or age, which provides another opportunity:
shared gardens. This allows individuals to grow in someone
else’s garden either together or independently. It is great
for older people, who are worried about maintaining
the garden but can still share their knowledge. The
Garden Partners programme in Wandsworth, London, is
a great example of matching young people keen to grow
with older garden owners in the borough. It was also a
befriending scheme and helped tackle isolation for those
less able to get out and helped reduce the risk of falls and
accidents in the garden.
Landshare, set up by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, is a
nationwide scheme. The important thing is that no money
changes hands and there is normally an agreement about
how the garden is used and the produce often divided.
Take a look at Totnes’s Gardenshare project where
unloved plots grow salads, connections – even friends!
They have a super step-by-step guide and lots of useful
forms. What lovely people!
Home growing and
shared gardens
Getting started
28

People – people in the community who want to grow food or are willing to share
their space
Cardiff Hops – www.facebook.com/groups/416366171788291
Landshare – www.landshare.net
Edinburgh Garden Partners – www.edinburghgardenpartners.org.uk
Transition Town Totnes – www.transitiontowntotnes.org/groups/food-group/
gardenshare/how-to-start
Food Up Front - www.foodupfront.org
Garden Organic - www.gardenorganic.org.uk
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Cardiff Hops
Following the success of a similar project in Brixton,
Cardiff Hops has brought home-brewing of a different
kind to Wales by encouraging Cardiff to grow its
own hops. Launched in 2013, the project is literally
growing from strength to strength as the hops come
up every year. Hop plants are growing in gardens,
parks, pots and community areas across the city.
Cardiff Hops advise people how to grow the hops and
then organise collection the resulting beer is brewed
by Pipes microbrewery. The 2013 crop resulted in 100
litres of ‘Taff Temptress’ green hop ale!

Guerrilla gardening is is the act of gardening on neglected
land that the gardeners do not have the legal right to use,
such as an abandoned public site, or private property. Some
people just want to grow flowers or food crops to make the
area more attractive, whilst others use it as a form of protest
and direct action against land rights and ownership.
As this is technically trespass we recommend you just
identify a neglected public space you would like to improve,
which could be an unloved planter, overgrown flowerbed
or even a roundabout or underpass, and then ask your local
council if you can cultivate it.
At the Elephant and Castle in south London locals have been
pimping pavements, traffic islands and roadside verges since
2004. What about growing food at a bus stop? That’s exactly
what the Edible Bus Stop in Stockwell in south London have
done! The project began as a response to a planning proposal
to sell the sole green space in the neighbourhood to private
developers. They now have a whole edible bus route with
the aim of piggybacking on the transport network to create
a network of edible community gardens. They are now
supported by their local councils and the Mayor of London.
You could look at similar schemes in your area. How about
growing in an old phone box?
Guerrilla gardening
Getting started
32

People/planning – members of the community willing to get involved and a way
of communicating with them about days and times
Space – identified areas of land
Equipment – you will need some gardening tools, seeds or plants
Guerrilla Gardening – www.guerrillagardening.org
The Edible Bus Stop – www.theediblebusstop.org
Pot Hole Gardener – www.thepotholegardener.com
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Rather than grow your own, why not help yourself to what nature
has to offer? Wild food is anything edible that is not cultivated
or managed, and occurs in its natural state. This includes plants,
(leaves, berries, nuts and sap), fungi or animals. Wild food was
once necessary for human survival but most of this traditional
knowledge has been lost. However there are people, books and
websites that can help you identify this free food – foraging, the
act of searching for wild food, is on the increase.
You could start by organising the community to harvest
fruit off trees in the streets, or walks in the local woods to
look for mushrooms – but you do need some knowledge to
ensure what you are going to eat is safe and not poisonous.
It is an ideal way to connect with the seasons and be aware
of the natural environment. Make sure you don’t over-
harvest and only take what you can use.
Wild food and foraging
People – someone with some knowledge of wild foods and a group of people
interested in foraging
Space – some local foraging-friendly spots
Equipment – a knife is often useful and a bag to put stuff in
Fergus the Forager – www.fergustheforager.co.uk
Robin Harford’s Wild Food Guide to the Edible Plants of Britain – www.eatweeds.co.uk
Nevermind the burdocks, Emma Gunn - www.nevermindtheburdocks.co.uk
Getting started
34

Community-supported
agriculture (CSA)
Community-supported agriculture is a partnership between
farmers and the local community providing mutual benefits
and reconnecting people to the land where their food is grown.
The network or association of individuals pledges to support
one or more local farms, sharing the risks and benefits of
producing the food. CSA members or subscribers pay at the
beginning of the growing season for a share of the anticipated
harvest; once harvesting begins, they receive weekly shares
of whatever the farm produces. Farmers benefit by receiving
a more stable and secure income and closer connection with
their community, and consumers can benefit by eating fresh
healthy food, feeling more connected to their food and learning
new skills as volunteers.
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You will need to identify local farms and approach the
farmers to see if they would be interested in setting up a
CSA. You could call a public meeting to get people round the
table. The Soil Association’s CSA action manual provides all
the essential info.
Growing Well is a farm-based charity that promotes
mental health recovery and well-being by encouraging the
local community to get involved in organic growing. This
grower-led CSA rents its six acres of land from Low Sizergh
Farm, a National Trust tenant, with whom it has developed
a strong and supportive relationship. Growing Well currently
has 45 members who pay £7.50 a week for a share of
vegetables, which they collect from the farm.
Getting started
Planning/people – interested farmers and local people willing to buy things.
Legal – you may need help and/or advice to set the agreement with the farmers.
Finance – for a small group you can monitor orders on a piece of paper, but if you
decide to grow beyond this, you’ll find it easier if you are able to use a spreadsheet.
Chagfood Community Market Garden – www.chagfood.org.uk
Growing Well – www.growingwell.co.uk
Tablehurst and Plawhatch farm – www.tablehurstandplawhatch.co.uk
Soil Association – www.soilassociation.org/communitysupportedagriculture
37

Apart from growing veg or fruit in the community you might
also think about keeping bees for honey, chickens or ducks for
eggs. There are many other kinds of small livestock that you
could keep, like quails or even a goat or pigs, but you need to
check the regulations with Defra, the government Department
for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It would also be
worth contacting people with experience of keeping animals
for advice. Remember that most animals must have their food,
water and shelter needs seen to every day, so having a team
of people willing to take responsibility for them is important.
A scheme just outside Leamington Spa, Canalside Community
Bees, is a co-operative supported by subscriptions, as well
as the time and effort of its members. Members get involved
in managing the bees, building hives, planting bee-friendly
flowers, harvesting honey and making use of hive products.
All members get one jar of honey and the chance to buy more
honey at a discount.
Livestock and bees
People – members of the community willing to get involved
Space – a piece of land the size of which will depend on what you are going to keep
Legal – you may need some advice about keeping livestock. Check with Defra
about whether you need a licence
Equipment – you might need to build or buy a shelter
Defra – www.defra.gov.uk
British Beekeepers association – www.bbka.org.uk
Canalside Community Bees – canalsidecommunitybees.blogspot.co.uk
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Be enterprising
There are lots of different ways to be enterprising
with food in your neighbourhood, and some involve
selling it. From community shops and farmers’
markets to box schemes and food co-ops, farmers
and customers are getting together, becoming
retailers themselves and changing the face of
shopping for food. You can start small with a food co-
op and then as your confidence grows branch out into
one of the other common types of selling schemes
we’ve outlined in this chapter.
41

Most businesses require some marketing. You’ll need to
research the kind of people your customers are, what
they want, and how many of them there might be. You’ll
then need to decide on the best way of letting those
people know about you. That might be through social
media, flyers or having a presence at a local event. You
will need to budget for your marketing activities unless
you are only using social media.
The skills you need will vary depending on the kind of
project you run. Not every project requires IT skills but
they can make a project easier to manage and promote.
Unless you’re a one-man band then you’ll need people
to help run your community food business; they could be
paid staff or volunteers. A happy team is key to making
your scheme a success. It’s good to give people a specific
task that they are responsible for. Give them training and
make sure that the work is split fairly between everyone.
Ask people what they like doing and try and match tasks
to their particular interests and skills. Make sure that
both the most fun and more tedious tasks are shared out
between everyone. Giving staff and volunteers discounts
is a good way of building loyalty and commitment.
Marketing
IT skills
People
There are some basic skills and knowledge you might need
depending on the kind of project you run.
43

You can start by just buying dry goods such as grains,
pulses, dried fruit, flour and sugar from one big wholesaler
like Suma, Essential or Traidcraft. True Food Community
Co-op in Reading and Ipswich Ripple Food Co-op both
started out like this with a group of people getting together
for a better choice of wholefoods at a better price than
the high street could offer. Many student food co-ops like
Manchester Students’ Food Co-op also started by focussing
on wholefoods such as grains and cereals. Starting with dry
goods means you have only one delivery and everything is
in packets and jars so no mess all over your carpet! As your
co-op grows you can include more items, buy from local
growers and get goods from a range of different wholesalers.
Both the Ipswich and Reading co-ops have done just that,
and now operate as shops. Most student co-ops run as a
stall so they keep stock of goods like a shop does. They start
Food co-ops and
buying groups
Getting started
Running a food co-op is a great way to dip your toe into selling
food locally. Food co-ops and buying groups work by buying
in bulk. Many take money in advance so they only buy in what
they have already been paid for. Buying in bulk enables food
co-ops to get better prices: the more people who take part,
the better the price. Many co-ops are run by people from their
own homes and often have only a few members – maybe
just people who live in the same street, or a group of friends.
Others are larger and run like a shop or a market stall. Often,
larger food co-ops operate out of community centres, schools,
church halls while others are set up in workplaces
44

out by focussing on the most common larder items like sugar,
coffee, tea, grains and pulses. These items also keep well, so
it means they can keep wastage down. Many small food
co-ops have been started by organisations working to
improve health in the community and only sell fruit and veg.
These co-ops operate more like a box scheme (see below).
For a small co-op made up of you and a few friends you’ll need:
People – a group willing to buy the same sort of things together
Finance – a small group can monitor its orders on a piece of paper, but larger groups
will probably need a spreadsheet.
If you decide to move on to having a stall or increasing your co-op
members then you’ll need:
IT skills – you’ll need to have a database to monitor your orders and you might
want to take subscriptions online using a payment system.
Pricing – you will need to cover all your costs e.g. things like staff, packing, delivery
and subscriptions. You’ll also need to set up a system to manage your stock so that
you are always selling the items with the closest best before/sell by dates first.
People – you will need staff or volunteers to help.
Marketing – make sure people know about your project by using flyers, social
media and the local press.
Legal – as you grow you may need help and/or advice to set up a legal structure.
You may also need to think about the kind of insurance cover you need.
Permissions/regulations – check with your council and environmental health office to
make sure you have all the pemissions and meet all the regulations to operate legally.
Sustain food co-ops toolkit – www.sustainweb.org/foodcoops
True Food Co-op in Reading – www.truefood.coop
Ipswich Ripple Food Co-op – ipswichripplefoodcoop.yolasite.com
Manchester Students Food Co-op – www.facebook.com/mansfcoop
Ox Co-Op – www.oxcoop.com
A Healthy Profit – www.sustainweb.org/publications/?id=202
Suma – www.suma.coop
Essential – www.essential-trading.co.uk
Traidcraft – www.traidcraft.co.uk
45

Box schemes are set up for customers to buy a box of food on
a regular basis, usually once a week. Most box schemes are for
fruit and veg though some include or only offer meat and fish.
Customers often buy direct from local farmers, which gives the
farmers a regular order and cuts out the middleman. There are
many successful models that generate enough income to cover
the costs involved, but they need to be carefully planned.
Box schemes usually deliver fresh fruit and vegetables or other
products, often locally grown and organic, either directly to the
customer or to a local collection point. They decide on the contents of
the box (rather than the customer) which varies from week to week
and according to season and what is available (sometimes you can
exclude certain things). Most schemes require a subscription or money
upfront and only buy in what they need to cover their orders.
Some community box schemes also grow some or all of their produce
or work with a number of community gardens or farms that grow
the produce that goes into the box. Others buy in some or all of the
produce from local farmers, and may buy in items from wholesalers
that can’t be grown locally e.g. bananas, oranges.
You can start your scheme small but most farmers or wholesalers will
only deliver a minimum quantity so you’ll need enough customers
committed to receiving a box so you don’t waste food or money.
It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to make it work with less than 10-15
customers. When starting out it’s best to get customers to collect from
you so that you eliminate delivery costs. Otherwise you’ll need to be
sure that your prices take account of the cost of delivery.
Growing Communities, one of the largest and most established
community box schemes, estimate that it costs about £5,000 to get a
basic scheme up and running. They run a start-up programme helping
new projects get off the ground so it’s worth getting in touch with
them if you want advice.
Box schemes
Getting started
46

The Soil Association – www.soilassociation.org/boxschemes
Growing Communities – www.growingcommunities.org
(and their start-ups e.g. Windmill veg box scheme in Margate – thanet.veg-box.org
or Local Greens – www.localgreens.org.uk)
The Community Fruit and Veg Project in Hastings – www.fruitandveg.org
Bucky Box – www.buckybox.com
Go Cardless – www.gocardless.com
For a small scheme:
Basic IT skills – if you are only buying in what you need to fill your orders, you
won’t need much more than a simple spreadsheet to monitor the money you get
from your customers and the money you pay your farmers. If you want to take
orders online you’ll need more IT skills to find and use the right software to create
a database that can monitor your orders. This doesn’t need to be hugely complex
as people don’t have many choices with what they can order and you can take
payment by standing order so you don’t need an online payment system.
Pricing – if you find you have to deliver to customers or to drop-off points you’ll
need to know how to adjust your prices to cover the cost of transport or add it
on to each customer’s bill.
Space – a small box scheme can be run from your own home providing you have a
space like a shed or a garage that can be used for packing and storage.
For a larger scheme:
IT skills – you may need a more complex system to monitor your orders and you
might want to take subscriptions online using a payment system. Software is
available that will do this, so you may just need some advice to find the one that
suits you best.
Pricing – the price of your produce will need to cover all your costs, e.g. things like
staff and volunteer time, packing, delivery and subscriptions.
People – you will need staff or volunteers to help.
Legal – as you grow you may need help and/or advice to set up a legal structure.
You should also consider what insurance cover you need.
Permissions/regulations – however small your group it’s always worth checking with
your council and environmental health office to make sure you are operating legally.
Space – as you grow, you might need bigger premises for storage and packing. A
school hall or community centre might be an option.
47

48
Growing communities
Some 20 years ago, a group of friends forged links with a
farm in Buckinghamshire. As well as getting their veg from
the farm, the group helped with the growing and harvesting.
The success of these trips led them to look for land where
they could grow food themselves in their neighbourhood.
Today, Growing Communities is a successful social
enterprise with a team of 20 part-time staff. The team
works with around 30 small-scale farmers and producers,
and supplies organic, seasonal, local food to more than
3,000 people a week through a fruit and vegetable box
scheme and a farmers’ market. They now offer volunteers
and apprentices the chance to learn about growing on a
number of different growing sites and run a scheme which
helps groups set up their own box schemes.

SHOP
There are over 300 community shops in the UK and they’re
mostly found in rural areas. They tend to be very responsive
and listen to their customers’ requests. Some have taken over
commercial shops that have closed, others have started from
scratch to address a local need.
Community shops
Get a group of people with a range of different skills and
experience together and hopefully you’ll cover key areas
like how to manage the money, and also the legal things
like whether you need a proper legal structure and what
terms you have in your lease. Community shops often rely
heavily on volunteers to run them, so you’ll need a pool of
reliable people who are willing to help.
There’s also support available to get you started through
the Plunkett Foundation’s community shops team. And you
don’t need an actual shop; there are community shops that
have adapted a part of their village hall, such as Islip village
shop in Oxfordshire.
Getting started
50

Pricing – understanding how to price your goods to cover your costs.
IT skills – basic skills to run a spreadsheet on which you can monitor your costs
and income.
People – you’ll need to understand how to keep staff and volunteers happy and
enthusiastic. It’s good to give people a specific task that they are responsible for
and as much as possible match tasks to people’s skills and experience. Give them
training and make sure that work is split fairly between everyone. Make sure that
both the most fun and more tedious tasks are shared out between everyone.
Giving staff and volunteers discounts is a good way of building loyalty and
commitment. A happy team is key to making your shop a success.
Marketing – every shop needs customers. Social media, flyers, posters or an article
in the local paper or newsletter will all help to let people know your shop is open
for business. Use social media to tell people about specials and opening hours and
listen to the feedback they give.
Legal – depending on whether your shop is in a separate building or is using an
existing building like a village hall you may need experience or advice to help you
set up the right legal structure/negotiate a lease. You should also consider the kind
of insurance you might need and health and safety requirements.
Permissions and regulations – check with your local council and local
environmental health officer to make sure you have the right permissions for
operating a food business. You’ll need to set up a system to make sure you and
your staff are handling food safely. You are not legally obliged to have a food
hygiene certificate but you are legally responsible for ensuring that anyone who
handles food has been properly trained to do so. Your local council will be able to
provide advice on this and there is lots of help and advice on the Food Standards
Agency website.
Blisland community shop – www.facebook.com/pages/Blisland-Community-
Store/436332279808372
Seavington village store – www.theseavingtons.org/village-store-cafe
Ashton Hayes village shop – www.ourvillageshop.org.uk
Islip Village shop – www.islip.org.uk/index.php?menu=shop
51

Many community cafes grow out of projects that are already
working in one way or another with their local community.
As a result they often have a larger organisation behind
them that provides the money and often some of the skills
to get things started. Often the cafe is used as a means to
teach local people new skills and give them work experience.
Community cafes make everything on site or buy in produce
that is grown or made locally. A few even grow some of the
produce themselves.
Community cafe
Much like a community shop, running a community cafe can be a
complex business and require skills in dealing with money and people.
But there is no reason why you can’t start up small as a pop-up with
just a few enthusiastic home cooks. Find an underused kitchen at
a community centre, sports or social club that you might be able to
use for free or for a small rent and start off selling items that you can
cook in advance such as cakes, quiches, soups and sandwiches that
only need minimal extra preparation before being served. As your
confidence and number of customers grows you can increase the
scope of your menu and even start cooking items to order on site.
Remember however big or small your menu is to try to provide a good
variety of items to cater for all tastes and appetites.
Getting started
52

and income.
Equipment – if you are using an existing kitchen then you might be able to use
their equipment, but you may also need to raise some money to buy in extra
things you need.
People – you’ll need to understand how to keep staff and volunteers happy and
commitment. A happy team is key to making your scheme a success.
Marketing – every cafe needs customers. Social media, flyers, posters or an article
in the local paper or newsletter will all help to let people know your shop is open for
business. Use social media to tell people about specials and opening hours and listen to
the feedback they give you.
Legal – depending on the location of your cafe you may need experience or advice
to help you set up the right legal structure/negotiate a lease. You might also need
to consider what insurance you will need and health and safety requirements.
environmental health officer to make sure you have the right permissions and
comply with the regulations for operating a food business. There is also lots of
help and advice on the Food Standards Agency website.
Sustain – factsheets about some of the key things you need to think about when
running a community cafe – www.sustainweb.org/ethicaleats/community_cafes
The Kitchen in Bolton – thekitchen.coop
Pie in the Sky, London – foodcycle.org.uk/location/pie-in-the-sky
Paper and Cup – www.paperandcup.co.uk
Nana – www.wearenana.com
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An easy way to have a go at selling is to start as a pop-up. A
food pop-up, as its name implies, is a temporary shop, cafe
or stall that can be put up and taken down quickly. It’s a great
way to try out new ideas. Some pop-ups use buildings that
are vacant between tenancies and only last until a new tenant
takes on the lease. Other pop-ups operate on a regular basis
e.g. a market stall, or a pop-up cafe in a community space that
serves refreshments to people attending an event or activity
and held on specific days and at specific times during the
week. Because the pop-up will only operate for a short time
you’ll only require the basics to get started. It’s a great way to
see if there is demand for what you’re offering.
Pop-ups
54

You’ll need to have a clear idea of what sort of pop-up you
want, e.g. a shop, cafe or stall, and then look for suitable
locations, talk to landlords and negotiate the terms of any
lease or permissions that you need to have. Landlords are
often more flexible with leases and permissions for pop-
ups because they know they will only be there for a short
time and they may be prepared to offer you a rebate on
the business rate. Alternatively, you may be able to use a
community space for free or at a discounted rate.
Getting started
and income.
Equipment – you might need to find some money to buy some equipment.
People – you’ll need to know how to keep staff and volunteers happy and
commitment. A happy team is key to making your scheme a success.
Legal – depending on the location of your pop-up you may need experience or
advice to help you set up the right legal structure/negotiate a lease or get the right
permissions. You might also need to consider what insurance you will need and
any health and safety requirements.
environmental health officer to make sure you have the right permissions and
comply with the regulations for operating a food business. There is also lots of
help and advice on the Food Standards Agency website.
Meanwhile – www.meanwhile.com
55

57
Nana Cafe, Hackney
Staffed entirely by pensioners, or rather ‘lovely older
ladies from the local area’, Nana describes itself as a
comfort-food cafe. Begun as a pop-up cafe in a pub,
offering food, creative sessions and child-care, it’s now
a permanent fixture, thanks to a successful Kickstarter
campaign. The campaign exceeded its target and Nana
is now resident in the Convenience, a cafe run in former
public toilet! True to its origins as a pop-up, the cafe
hosts pop-up restaurants for people who want to have
a go at running their own restaurants.

A food hub is often defined as a space that acts as a central
point where farmers and producers bring their produce and
from which customers buy that food. In a sense it is just like a
market, though the aim of the hub is to offer customers more
choice than a typical market can. The running costs of a bricks
and mortar food hub are significant and without access to
cheap or free warehousing it can be difficult to price the food
so that it covers the costs of running a hub. To try to overcome
this a number of virtual web-based hubs have sprung up over
the last few years.
Food hubs
Virtual hubs do not hold stock themselves but just act as a
broker passing on orders from customers to the producer
and then arranging for the food to be delivered either to
the customer, or at drop off points. They differ from a box
scheme in that customers have more choice in terms of
what they order, though there may be a minimum spend
required. Covering the costs of delivery however is a
thorny problem which few have successfully cracked.
A virtual hub needs a computer and some IT know-
how to create and manage the database of products
and customers. There are a number of groups that have
developed IT systems to manage orders. Some like
StroudCo’s are open source which means you can use
them for free whilst others such as BuckyBox take a fee
for every customer that orders through the hub.
Virtual web-based hubs
Getting started
58

There is another sort of physical food hub which is more
than just a place that brings producers and customers
together. This sort of food hub is usually run by a well-
established community food group and it involves a ‘hub’
of activities around growing, cooking and eating food.
One of the best examples of this sort of hub is Organiclea,
a worker’s co-operative that started as a community
allotment project and now includes a cafe, a box scheme
and market stall, workshops on cooking food and training
and educational activities. What Organiclea shows is that
from a small beginning a whole range of food activities
can grow.
Physical hubs: an alternative idea
IT skills – to create a database or you’ll need help finding the right software
package to manage your orders and set up an online payment system.
Pricing – one of your biggest challenges will be to set up a scheme which covers
the costs of delivery in a way that doesn’t make your goods too expensive for
people to want to buy.
Permissions and regulations – it’s worth checking with your council and
environmental health office to make sure that you have the right permissions and
meet the necessary regulations for operating a food business.
Legal – you may need advice and help to set up a legal structure. You might also
need to consider what insurance you will need.
StroudCo – www.stroudco.org.uk
Tamar Valley Food Hub – www.tamarvalleyfoodhubs.org.uk/about.html
Farm Direct – www.farm-direct.com
Organiclea – www.organiclea.org.uk
Bucky Box – www.buckybox.com
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Farmers’ markets are a way for farmers and producers to sell
direct to their customers. A market brings lots of customers
and producers together. Many farmers’ markets are certified
by FARMA, a co-operative of farmers and producers. FARMA
certification sets rules on who can sell produce at a market and
the distance that the farm can be from the market. Only people
who have grown or made the food can man the stalls.
This means that the customer can talk to someone who has
been very much involved in the production of that food.
So they can ask them all those questions they have about how
the food is grown or made.
Farmers’ markets
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Any group of people can set up a farmers’ market but
you need to do a bit of research first. As with all other
community food selling you need to be sure you will have
enough customers. Look to see what the competition is
e.g. local food sold in shops, box schemes and food co-
ops, other markets. The other key thing is to make sure
you have enough producers to create a vibrant market.
You need a minimum of 12 stalls covering the basics – veg,
fruit, meat, bread, eggs, cheese. You also need to scope a
good location, either one that already has high footfall or
has the potential to be turned into a destination people
will go out of their way to visit. You’ll need insurance,
equipment, and you may need electricity and water. And
you’ll need to check that the stallholders are insured and
meet food hygiene requirements.
Getting started
People – you’ll need to find enough producers/farmers with a good enough variety
of produce to create an attractive market. And you’ll need to train someone up to
manage the market and be responsible for it when it’s up and running.
Legal – you’ll need to liaise with your council and local environmental health
officer to make sure the market and the individual stallholders comply with the
rules on health and safety. You’ll also need to make sure you have all the right
permissions to use the site for your market. You also need to consider what
insurance you will need.
Kent Farmers’ Market Association: Managing a Market –
www.kfma.org.uk/ManagingaMarket
Guides to running successful farmers’ markets –
www.makinglocalfoodwork.co.uk/practical_guides_toolkits.cfm
FARMA – www.farma.org.uk
Thames Valley Farmers Market Co-operative – www.tvfm.org.uk
London Farmers Markets – www.lfm.org.uk
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Make something
The best way to know what’s in your food is to make
it yourself. Whether you grow fruit and vegetables
yourself, or whether you’re just an enthusiastic home
baker, brewer or jam or chutney maker, making
food is a great way of sharing your love of food with
others. Lots of individuals and community groups are
doing just that. We’ve used examples of things that
others are doing to give you ideas about some top
ways to get making.
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The UK’s food system is very wasteful at every stage of the
process. From crops being left in the field to rot because they
do not meet supermarket specifications on size, shape and
colour, to multi-buy offers that encourage shoppers to buy
more than they need, food that could be eaten is being wasted.
And as every home grower knows, gluts of fruit and vegetables
happen every year when growing conditions make a perfect
harvest for a particular crop. Preventing food from being
wasted reduces its carbon footprint, saves money and reduces
the environmental impact of dealing with the waste. It can also
be used to create meals for the community to share.
Using up food that’s
being wasted
The chances are that there are fruit trees and bushes in your
neighbourhood with fruit that isn’t being used. Map out what fruit
and nut trees or berry bushes there are in your neighbourhood.
They could be growing wild or in people’s gardens. Then get a
harvesting group together and go picking. If the fruit is in people’s
gardens you’ll need their permission to pick it and it’s a good idea
to let them keep any fruit that they want for themselves. That’s
also true for any land that is owned by someone else, e.g. council
land or National Trust land. As far as picking from common land
is concerned it’s legal to pick it providing you are not using the
pickings to make money. There can be local by-laws which
prohibit picking on common land, but if this is the case there
should be a sign up on the land that says this. You’ll need some
equipment like apple pickers and containers for collection and
you’ll need to think about what to do with what you harvest.
Getting started
Collect and use unwanted gluts of fruit
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You could just distribute it to local schools, care homes,
community centres, or if you are a bit more ambitious you
could find a way to process the produce yourself turning it into
juice, jams or chutneys. For that you’ll need access to a kitchen
and you may need extra ingredients and packaging.
The Abundance project was created by the urban food network
Grow Sheffield in 2007, and has since been replicated in other
areas. Abundance is made up of teams of volunteers who scour
the city collecting seasonal gluts of fruit and redistributing it to
the local community. They harvest fruit from trees in public
places and from private homes.. Some also process the fruit
they collect into juices, jams and chutneys. See if there’s an
Abundance group in your area. If there isn’t then start your own!
They have recipes and resources on their website.
People – you’ll need a group of people (3 or 4 is enough to get started) to help
with the harvesting and you’ll need to understand how to keep them happy and
enthusiastic. Give each person a specific responsibility and try as much as possible
to match up tasks to people’s interests and skills. And make sure they get some of
the harvest to take home.
Money – you may need to raise some money to cover the costs of harvesting
tools, baskets and processing equipment like juice presses.
Planning – you’ll need to have researched and made a plan for what you will do
with the fruit before you start picking.
Pricing – if you are going to process the produce e.g. make jams, chutneys, or juice
you’ll need to know how to price up your goods to cover your costs. It’s worth
getting some legal advice before selling any produce made from pickings to make
sure you are within the law.
Insurance – think about what insurance you might need and any health and
safety requirements.
Abundance network – www.abundancenetwork.org.uk
The Abundance project
65

FoodCycle
People – volunteering at a FoodCycle hub or finding out if you can make links
between charities and shops in your local area requires nothing more than
enthusiasm and a friendly attitude.
It’s estimated that there’s at least 400,000 tonnes of
supermarket food waste that is fit for human consumption
so you could start by exploring whether it’s possible
to redistribute food from shops and supermarkets in
your area. Ask local charities or community groups that
provide meals for people about whether they receive
food donations from retailers. If they don’t, then you could
contact local shops and see if they can link up. Often these
sorts of links don’t happen because both the shops and
the charities are too busy to make the connection. It needs
people from outside to help make those relationships
happen. Alternatively, you could help your community make
use of that food by cooking and serving it to people who
need it. There are some great projects out there that you
could emulate or join like Food Cycle and Disco Soup.
FoodCycle is a charity which makes use of surplus food
donated by local supermarkets. They use a triple donation
model: supermarkets donate food that is fit to eat but
past its best before date, people donate their time and
businesses donate the catering facilities. They have
created eighteen hubs so far and have a network of 1,000
volunteers who create wholesome meals for people in
need or who are socially isolated. They’re mainly based in
urban areas in England but are interested in hearing from
anyone who would like to be involved in a hub in their area.
Make use of waste food
FoodCycle – www.foodcycle.org.uk
Disco Soup - www.abundanceoxford.wordpress.com/disco-soup
Disco Soupe - www.discosoupe.org
67

If you are home grower with gluts of produce or a keen home
baker, then making your own bread, cakes, jams, chutneys
or pickles is a great way of sharing your talents. You won’t
need anything more than your own kitchen, time, skill and
enthusiasm. Get a group of home growers or makers together
in your neighbourhood and you can share the making and sell
what you make together.
Making and selling your
own produce
First find out if there is any demand for your produce, try it out
on friends, family and work colleagues to see what they think.
For a really honest opinion try a food swap to see if people you
don’t know like your samples enough to swap their produce
for it. Do some market research at a local farmers’ market and
take samples to local shop-owners (especially if you have a
community shop in your neighbourhood) to see if they’ll stock
your products. Don’t overpromise the quantity you can supply
until you’ve made several batches. If you live in England or Wales,
then Country Markets could be an easy way to get started.
Even if you decide not to join, their website has lots of relevant
information for people starting up a food production business.
Getting started
Country Markets
Country Markets offer a great way to sell your homemade
products. It is a co-operative social enterprise that runs markets
around the country which sell any produce that is made or
grown in a domestic kitchen or garden. All producers selling at
the markets must become members and membership is open to
anyone over the age of 16 and costs only five pence. Everything
68

and income.
Food hygiene – anyone selling cooked food at a Country Market needs to have
a food hygiene certificate (the current requirement is for a Level 2 in food safety
in catering). Your kitchen may need to be inspected by your local environmental
health officer. The local Country Markets manager will be able to advise you of
local courses on food hygiene and help you get all the permissions and training
you need. If you are thinking of selling at another market or at your community
centre get some advice from your local council and environmental health officer
about any permissions and regulations you need to follow.
Insurance – your insurance will be covered at a Country Market but if you are
selling food at a different market or outlet make sure you get some advice on
what insurance you may need.
Country Markets – www.country-markets.co.uk
is sold co-operatively at the market with producers receiving
a payment at the end of each month for their sales minus a
small commission to cover running costs and insurance.
69

Cooking with others is a great way of sharing skills and
learning new ones. If there is something that you are
particularly keen on cooking or making, consider running a
session to share your skills with others. You can do it in your
own kitchen!
Sharing your skills
Getting started
You’ll need to be a confident home baker, brewer, jam or chutney
maker as the quality and taste of your product is key to enthusing
people. Practice making your dish or product. Make sure you have
enough equipment so everyone gets a chance to do something
hands on. Plan the session so people don’t all have to use the same
equipment at the same time and can leave with a finished item. And
keep your group small so that you can give them all some help and
attention.
Made in Hackney – www.madeinhackney.org
Loaf: community bakery and cookery school – www.loafonline.co.uk
Regulations – Ask the council if you need to register as a food business and check
food hygiene requirements with the local environmental heath officer. You might
also need insurance.
Pricing –You may need to charge people for ingredients and any costs for hiring
space and equipment if you’re not using your own.
and income.
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73
Disco Soup
Inspired by Slow Food Deutschland’s Schnippel Disko,
Disco Soup makes good use of food that would
otherwise go to waste by hosting events that bring
soup and music together to raise awareness of food
waste. The produce comes from wholesalers, local
food producers, and food banks, the only requirement
is that it must be good enough to eat and would
otherwise go to waste. Disco Soups have been made
across the world, in Paris, London and New York. In
Oxford, 800 people turned up to their third event and
it doesn’t even have to involve soup, in France they’ve
had a Disco Salade instead.

Setting up a community composting scheme is a great way of
giving everyone a chance to ‘do their bit’ for the environment.
Making compost reduces your carbon footprint by recycling
your garden and kitchen waste as well as providing a way
of enriching your garden without using peat. Not every back
garden and kitchen will have enough of the right balance of
soft to woody material to make a successful compost heap or
indeed the space in which to put it, but by pooling your waste
together with your neighbours’ you can create enough good
compost for everyone’s garden. Most community composting
schemes are small and set up by a group of people who share
an interest in making and using compost. Projects range in
scale from small groups working on allotment sites, such as
Bisley Community Composting Scheme, or those that collect up
waste from a group of residents, such as the Trunch Community
Composting Scheme, to community-run social enterprises
that have contracts with local authorities to provide kerbside
collection services, such as South Molton Recycle in Devon.
Community composting
Running a composting scheme requires both skills and
equipment. Composting bins can be made from a variety
of materials, but the cheapest way to make one is using
shipping pallets which you may be able to get for free. In
addition, you’ll need some bags and a plastic tarpaulin to
keep your compost moist. Scales of some sort are useful
so you can measure how much waste you collect and
how much compost you produce. Depending on the sort
of waste you collect you might also need a shredder or
wood chipper to deal with woodier items. If you’ve not
done anything like this before, then it’s worth thinking
Getting started
74

about going on one of the courses that the Community
Composting Network run. It’s also worth checking to see
if your council supports any sort of Street Champions or
Recycling Champions group in your area. These schemes
are a way of getting members of the public involved in
improving their local area on a voluntary basis. They may
be able to offer you some help or at least provide some
extra volunteers to help run your scheme.
Equipment – you may need to raise some money to buy equipment.
Legal – you may need experience or advice to help you set up the right legal
structure and get all the necessary registrations and permissions from your council
and the Environment Agency to set up your site.
People – you’ll need to understand how to keep volunteers happy and motivated.
It’s good to give people a specific task that they are responsible for. Give them
training and make sure that the work is split fairly between everyone. Ask people
what they like doing and as much as possible match tasks to their particular
interests and skills. A happy team is key to making your scheme a success.
Community Composting Network – www.communitycompost.org
Bisley community composting scheme –
www.bisleycommunitycompostscheme.org.uk
Trunch Village community composting scheme –
www.trunch-norfolk.co.uk/village-society/composting-scheme/
South Molton Recycle – www.southmoltonrecycle.co.uk/index.html
Street Champions –
www2.keepbritaintidy.org/Expertise/StreetChampionFramework/Default.aspx
Birmingham Street Champions – www.birminghamstreetchampions.co.uk
Cambridge Community Recycling Champions –
www.cambridge.gov.uk/community-recycling-champions
75

Sharing and
celebrating
Events that encourage the sharing or swapping of food
are a great way of bringing people together to share
their knowledge of food and taste new things.
In this section you’ll find some ideas about how you can
act as a catalyst to get people together around food.
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78
Big Lunch
Big Lunches of all sizes have happened in all kinds of
communities; in streets, back gardens, parks, and local
community venues. Since starting in 2009, millions
of people have taken part in the Big Lunch with a
whopping 4.83 million sitting down to share food with
their neighbours in 2013.

Wherever a group of people get together there is an
opportunity to share food. A meal is a great way for a group
to celebrate what they do, introduce new people to their
group or promote or share their food culture. You don’t need
an indoor space for a meal. In fact some of the most popular
community meals are held outdoors, such as The Big Lunch,
the country’s best-known community street party. Everyone
loves a picnic or a barbecue so if you have access to an
outdoor space why not use it?
Sharing food in
your community
80

The most important thing to work out is who is going to
cook and eat the food. Once you’ve got enough cooks
and eaters then work out what cooking facilities you can
access. Many kitchens, like those in community centres,
schools or sports clubs, are unused some of the time and
you may be able to get them cheaply or for free. If you are
doing a one-off event you probably won’t need to worry
about permissions and health and safety regulations,
though it is always worth checking with your council and
environmental health office. You could also look and see
whether there are any local organisations in your area
already making meals for the community. Drop-in projects
often cook a hot meal for the people that use their services
and need volunteers to help make and serve the meals.
People – you’ll need a group of people to make the food.
Regulations – you’ll need to contact your council and check whether there are
any registrations and regulations you will need to comply with. You should also
consider what insurance you might need.
Pricing – you may be able to get food donated and you may get access to a
kitchen and gas/electricity for free at a local community space. However, there
may be preparation costs that you will need to cover and you’ll need to work out
how you will pay for these.
and income.
The Big Lunch – www.thebiglunch.com
Getting started
81

Dining or supper clubs are like a family meal or dinner party
where some – or all – of the guests are strangers. Many of them
take place in the host’s home though larger ones have branched
out and are held in unusual or quirky venues, some of which
might not usually be accessible to the public. Guests are normally
expected to pay upfront to ensure that the host covers the costs.
Diners sit together at a communal table, so socializing with
whoever is sitting next to you is very much expected. There is
a fixed menu that is published in advance so that guests know
what they will be eating. Some suppers include drinks whilst
others provide an aperitif and/or ask guests to bring their own
drinks. Some supper clubs are run by enthusiastic individual cooks
but many are run by family groups, friends or couples. If you’ve
not had experience of catering then there is a lot to be said for
running your supper club with a group of friends. You can then all
share the shopping, cooking, serving and washing up and you can
all bring along your favourite recipes to try out on your guests.
Many supper clubs have a particular theme, be that a
particular regional cuisine or particular ingredients. For
example August Indian Supper Club offers food from
the Indian state of Bihar; Soul Food Sisters which serves
African/Caribbean-inspired dishes. But you can cook pretty
much whatever you fancy providing there are folk out
there who want to eat it! It’s up to you how many courses
you provide and how many people you decide to feed.
Social media is great for promoting your event, or you can
join a site like Grub Club which allows you to promote your
event. They will also take the payment upfront for you and
pay you after your event.
Supper clubs
Getting started
82

Regulations – you’ll need to contact your council and check whether you need
to register as a food business. You’ll also need to check out any food hygiene
requirements with your local environmental heath officer. If you are serving
alcohol you’ll need an alcohol licence. If guests bring a bottle you don’t need a
licence. You should also consider what insurance you might need.
and income. You’ll need to take payment upfront so think about how this would
work best for you, you could use standing orders, set up a separate bank account,
or use an online payment system. You’ll need a Facebook page, Twitter account or
website. You could also join a group site that can help you promote your event.
Pricing – you’ll need to work out the cost per portion of your menu, taking into
account not only ingredient costs but also costs such as electricity, gas, water. In
theory there should also be a cost for the venue and for your time in preparing the
food but you may decide to waive these if you are holding the club in your own
home and your aim is to have fun rather than run a business!
Planning/people – choose dishes that you are very comfortable cooking and work
out how many people you can cook for and seat given the size of your space and
the equipment and manpower you have. Think about providing at least one course
that you can make in advance so that you reduce the stress on the night and can
enjoy the event too.
August Indian –
www.edibleexperiences.com/p/289822068/August-Indian-Supper-Club
Joginders supper club – www.jogindersupperclub.com
Soul Food Sisters – soulfoodsisterssupperclub.blogspot.co.uk
London Supper clubs – www.londonpopups.com/p/london-supper-clubs.html
83

Got too much of something? Try a food swap! It’s a great way
of encouraging people to try new things, and also a way of
linking different home growers and producers together. You
can do it with seeds, too.
Food Swaps
Talk to your friends and neighbours and find out if they have a glut of
something they make or grow, and whether they’d be interested in
swapping it for something else. You’ll need around 10-20 producers to
make the swap viable and ideally a bit of variety in what they have to
offer – so try and mix homemade food producers with growers
You don’t need much space or equipment to run a food swap. Ask a
pub, cafe or community centre if they have somewhere you could set
up a few tables indoors or outdoors. You’ll also need some index cards
(or old greetings cards) and some pens.
Most swaps take a couple of hours at most. First, everyone sets up and
displays their produce with a swap card for each product, e.g. a box
of eggs, or a jar of jam. Then everyone goes around and tastes each
other’s produce and if they like it, they can write an offer on the swap
card. The final half hour can be quite intense as people decide which
offers to accept or decline. There’s no obligation to swap, so there’s no
danger of ending up with something you don’t like, the only challenge
is having to decide on what to accept.
Getting started
84

Apples for Eggs – a network of food swaps – www.applesforeggs.com
Sheffield Food Swap – www.sheffieldfoodswap.org.uk
Seed Swaps:
Organiclea (arrange seed swaps on their own sites and with others) –
www.organiclea.org.uk
Growing Communities (hold an annual seed and plant swap) –
www.growingcommunities.org
Grow Sheffield (hold an annual seed swap at Heeley City Farm) –
www.growsheffield.com/sheffield-seed-swap-in-february/
Transition Town Manchester – www.transitiontownmanchester.org
Transition Town Totnes –
www.transitiontowntotnes.org/groups/food-group/seedy-sisters
Seedy Sunday Brighton – www.seedysunday.org.uk
Planning/people – you’ll need to manage the food swap and take overall
responsibility for who takes part, what they bring to swap and how the swap will
actually work.
Insurance – think about how you will cover insurance issues, either by taking out
some insurance or making sure all swappers complete a disclaimer against you
and each other.
Marketing - letting people know about the event is critical. Social media can
really help publicise events, so set up a Facebook page and a Twitter feed, but
you may also need to use flyers or contact local organisations such as allotment
associations. Time your event so there’s likely to be plenty of produce around.
85

86
Apples for Eggs
Apples for Eggs was set up by Vicky Swift and Sue Jewitt
in 2011. Initially it was run using a Facebook page for
people to post and swap their excess home produce
individually. They then started arranging Food Swap
events where people could exchange produce and there
are now swaps in seven locations in the UK and new
groups joining all the time. Apples for Eggs is a social
enterprise which uses any income it generates to cover
costs and help grow the network.

So, now it’s your turn!
Throughout this guide we’ve shown you that there are
lots of people just like you who are changing things by
working together to grow, sell, make and share food in
their community. And what they are doing is affecting
the way that thousands of people eat. In the UK there
are at least 3,000 community gardens, around 400
farmers’ markets and over 300 community shops. We’ve
also shown you that there are lots of ways that you can
start changing the way you and your community eat in a
small way, like getting together and growing some food
on an abandoned patch of land, setting up a food co-op
or making things to sell at a local market. Many of the
flagship community food projects that we’ve described
like OrganicLea and Growing Communities started off
small with just one or two people.
So, whether you want to improve your diet, help to
preserve the environment or just want to get to know
your neighbours better, then food is a great way to do it.
We’ve been growing, making and sharing food since
prehistoric times. It’s a critical part of who we are as a
species. The less we know about our food and where it comes
from the more difficult it is for us to make good decisions
about healthy eating and choose foods that preserve rather
than harm the environment. Some companies have turned
food into big business and some children are so distanced
from the natural origins of their food they aren’t even aware
that chips are made of potatoes. So let’s reconnect with our
food and let’s also reconnect with each other by sharing food
which can be one of life’s great pleasures.
90

Is there a patch of unloved ground in your community
that could do with some TLC?
Would you like to share your favourite dish with
others by either cooking it for them or teaching
them how to do it?
Have you got farmers in your area? What do they
grow/make?
What would you like to buy locally that you can’t?
What’s your favourite jam/chutney/cake that
you make?
Is there food that can be foraged/
reused/composted locally?
Growing
Sharing
Selling
Making
This guide was designed to give you food for thought and
demonstrate ways that you could get your community
together through food. Armed with this knowledge, talk
to your friends and neighbours and see what interests and
inspires them, meet together and discuss your ideas. Use this
guide to help you get things started. We’ve put together a few
key questions you might like to use to help get a conversation
going. Good luck!
91

92
Food is a basic human need. Local
food can help to strengthen our
communities and reduce our
impact on the environment.
Inside are a host of ideas to get you
thinking, bite-sized explanations
and signposts where you can
follow them up in more detail.

An Eden Project Field Guide to community food projects

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An Eden Project Field Guide to community food projects