New films share inspiring stories of communities taking control of the way they grow, buy and sell food
London, December 2011: Three new short films released on December 13, 2011 tell the inspiring stories of communities around the country taking control of their food and where it comes from. The films look at the work of pioneering community groups, from Manchester, Newcastle and East London. The films were developed by Sustain and the Lottery-funded Making Local Food Work program to inspire more people to join in.
“We started off on an allotment – a bunch of us with only limited skills who were just keen to see things happen,” says Ru Litherand of community group OrganicLea in the film about their work in East London.
The group has grown from an initial small allotment to an impressive 12-acre growing site. They also run a community café, a market stall, and a vegetable box scheme and train others in food growing and cooking. “Our role now is to support other people, because we’re going to need a lot more places like this,” says Ru.
OrganicLea depends on community involvement and volunteer help, driven by a passion that more food can and should be grown close to the people who eat it. According to Marlene Barrett, food distribution co-ordinator at OrganicLea: “It’s very easy for people to lose that connection of where their food comes from. But here you can be involved in eating it, growing it, cooking it, buying it to take home. All those things are connected together.”
Meanwhile, Manchester Veg People are showing that community-based food projects have the potential to supply institutional as well as small-scale buyers. Within a couple of months of getting started, this growers’ and buyers’ co-operative is providing fresh, sustainably grown produce to the University of Manchester. With 26 outlets, the university’s catering operation serves thousands of meals every day.
As Al Clark, Environmental Officer for Residences, Catering, Conferencing & Sport at the University of Manchester says in the film “We buy from Manchester Veg People because it’s fantastic local produce. Being part of the co-op means we have a say in what is grown and work much closer with the growers and other buyers.”
In Newcastle, the social enterprise Food Chain North East are working in deprived areas to meet the needs of local residents for fresh food and fill the gap left by the closure of local food shops and the move towards out-of-town food superstores.
“A core area of our work is on the eastern seaboard of Durham County which is a former coalfield area, where many people have suffered from a closure of local shops” says Chief Officer Nigel Race in the film that covers the work of Food Chain North East.
Food Chain delivers fresh fruit and vegetables to market stalls and food co-ops throughout this area. Most of the co-ops rely at least partly on volunteers to run them “I like to know that people can get fresh fruit and veg because you really can’t get it for miles around here,” says one volunteer.
“Projects like ours offer people real opportunity to get involved,” say Nigel. “What we really need is local people to be part of the things that are going on, on the ground, whether it’s growing opportunities, forming buying groups or volunteering on their local projects.”
Source: Sustain
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