Getting Started: How to set up a food co-op or buying group in your community

Getting Started: How to set up a food co-op or buying group in your community

FREE workshop and lunch!

12.30pm – 4.30pm

Monday 7^th February 2011

The Green Room, Dragon Hall, 17 Stukeley Street, London WC2 5LT

Are you interested in buying fresh local food, organic food or wholefoods? Would you like to buy good food with friends, neighbours or other people in your community? Would you like to find out if buying food with others could save you money? Are you trying to find suppliers of fresh organic produce for an existing food co-op?

If so, come along to a free workshop being organised by the Soil Association and Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming. You will have a chance to meet like-minded people, local food producers and find out about what’s involved in setting up a buying group or food co-op.

This event starts with a free lunch at 12.30 to 1.30 during which a number of existing London Food Co-ops will be joining us following a morning meeting or their own – this will give you a chance to meet other people already running food-coops in London. The afternoon workshop starts at 12.30 and finished at 4.30.

25 places are available so book early by completing the accompanying registration form and sending it to cmuspratt@soilassociation.org. If you can’t make it but are interested let us know so we can plan more events or offer you individual advice. If you have any questions about setting a food co-op in London then please contact Maresa Bosano maresa@sustainweb.org.

Community-run food buying groups come in all shapes and sizes including buying clubs, bag or box schemes, stalls or shops, and sell a variety of foods such as fruit and vegetables, organic wholefoods, home-made bread or local meat or dairy produce – in fact anything the community wants.

Thanks to funding from the Big Lottery through the Making Local Food Work programme free advice is now available on everything you might need to know about setting up a community food co-op, such as finding suppliers, buying equipment or recruiting volunteers.

More information and a toolkit showing how to get started is available at: www.foodcoops.org.

Further buying group guides on school, university and workplace buying groups are available at www.soilassociation.org/obg.aspx