ACCESS TO LOCAL FOOD

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• ACCESS TO LOCAL FOOD
• The art of the possible?

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RIVERSIDE COMMUNITY MARKET ASSOCATION
the Riverside Market
Community Food Projects
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Riverside Market was founded in 1998, and RCMA
Social Enterprise Ltd was established in January
2004 to oversee the running of the Market and
other food related social enterprises such as the
RCMA Community Garden
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The Riverside Market is located in Cardiff
opposite the Millennium Stadium and runs every
Sunday from 10am - 2pm with an average of 35
stalls selling all types of Welsh-produced food
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• There has been a great increase in the number of
  farmers markets in Wales in the past ten years.
  Currently there are more than 40 - Riverside is
  the largest. However despite original intentions,
  most customers at Riverside Market do not come
  from the local community (more on this later).

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• Last year RCMA publishedThe URBAN FARMERS
  MARKET TOOLKIT
• Which details the step by step process of setting
  up and running a Farmers Market in an urban
  context.
• Uses Riverside Market and Newport Farmers
  Markets as case studies.
• (Available free as a PDF File from RCMA)

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• RCMA WAS SET UP FROM THE OUTSET TO BE AN ENGINE
  FOR LOCAL REGENERATION, AS WELL AS A TRADING
  ENVIRONMENT WHICH WOULD CONTRIBUTE TO THE
  SUSTAINABILITY OF SMALL SCALE WELSH FOOD
  PRODUCERS.
• ALONGSIDE THE WEEKLY RIVERSIDE MARKET, RCMA
  CONTINUES TO RUN OTHER LOCAL FOOD INITIATIVES
  WHICH AIM TO HAVE A POSITIVE IMPACT ON THE DIETS
  AND HEALTH OF THE DIVERSE COMMUNITIES OF SOUTH
  CARDIFF.
• THESE INCLUDE

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Regular work with local schools
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Cow Goes to School project
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Farm visits for schoolkids
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Social events around a food theme
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To date, not many people from the local diverse
community shop at Riverside Market - to
partially address this RCMA helped set up a local
community Food Co-op - now run by a group of
local women.
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The Riverside Community Food Coop (RCFC) now
sells around 75 bags a week of fresh produce to
local residents for 2 per bag. Currently
produce comes from a nearby wholesaler, but
longer term they plan to locally source as much
as possible.
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Riverside Community Garden Project
At Pontcanna Permanent Allotments, Cardiff
Brick storage sheds awaiting transformation into
communal composting bays
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Some volunteers now grow food which they sell at
the Riverside food coop, and there is potential
for this to increase.
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RCMAs Future Priorities

• Increase stalls and footfall at Market.
• Make Garden Project sustainable
• Develop more projects in Schools
• Advising others on how to set up Farmers Markets
  (Local Councils etc).
• Develop a Market Garden project which can
  contribute to local procurement strategies.
• Research feasibility of a Mobile Farm Shop - Farm
  Shop
• Possible Community Training Kitchen and Cafe
• Consult with statutory and voluntary sector
  agencies on local food policy development
• Coordinate a Food and health Network in the
  culturally diverse communities of South Cardiff

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RCMAs Market Garden project

• Will start with 7 acres close to Cardiff.
• Aim is to demonstrate that local small scale
  intensive horticulture can be sustainable as a
  social enterprise
• Will include training component (links with
  university and horticulture college) and access
  for schools and local residents
• Welsh Assembly will cover costs of feasibility
  study will apply Lottery and DEFRA for
  development costs.
• Aims to make it productive within two years
• Supply farmers markets, food coops, schools and
  other institutions
• Feasibility study will look at variety of
  structure models

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UK-wide there is currently a lot of thinking, and
action, in the area of increasing access to local
food - for individuals and for institutions.
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• East Anglia Food Links are having success in
  promoting more local sourcing to schools and LEAs
• Three of the East of England's 10 local education
  authorities (LEAs) are leading the UK in their
  use of local and sustainable food for school
  meals. Working with EAFL the caterers of
  Herfordshire, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire County
  Councils are currently spending over 1m per
  annum on such foods - roughly equivalent to all
  other such initiatives in the UK put together.
• It is recognised that if caterers are to maximise
  their ability to source fruit and vegetables
  locally, it is important that they buy seasonal
  vegetables. This is a requirements on the caterer
  (to plan seasonal menus) rather than on the
  greengrocer, so there is an important training
  role n this process.

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• Too often attempts to sell local or sustainable
  food to LEAs seem to start by asking what
  products the producers would like to sell. EAFL
  believe that the only sensible place to start is
  to ask what products the customers want to buy.
  In this case the customers are the LEA caterers.
• The most successful area of EAFLs work with
  schools to date has been the development of a new
  way of getting local meat into school meals.
• So far their attempts to increase the use of
  local fruit and vegetables in school meals has
  been less successful. However, they are now
  embarking on a new approach - This is the
  "marketing desk" approach, which will involve a
  centrally based purchasing agency which will
  coordinate supply from small producers to meet
  institutional demands.
• EAFL and the Regional Centre of Excellence have
  developed a number of tender clauses (many of
  them drawing on DEFRAs work in this area) that
  can be used by LEA procurement officers to ensure
  that suppliers of higher-quality, safer and more
  environmentally-sustainable produce are favoured.
  

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• Sustains Good Food on the Public Plate
  Project builds on a pilot London Hospital Food
  Project which increased the amount of local and
  or organic food in four hospitals in London. It
  also builds on Sustains Organic Targets Campaign
  and Sustainable Food Chains Project to help
  create reliable markets for sustainable food.

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• Stroud Community Agriculture has developed an
  agricultural model which allows a small farm
  business to thrive. This is achieved by having
  the direct support and commitment of a local
  community of interest.
• They run a mixed farm where the day-to-day
  activities are carried out by a group of land
  workers. Each member of the group has
  responsibility for his or her own realm of work
  e.g. the dairy herd and grassland, the dairy
  processing, the vegetable growing, distribution
  and farm shop. However they employ full time farm
  manager who coordinates volunteer input -
  enabling members to meet and work together and
  jointly be responsible for the overall management
  of the farm.

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Some web sites

• http//www.eafl.org.uk
• http//www.sustainweb.org
• http//www.farmerslink.org.uk
• http//organicgardening.org.uk
• http//www.foodlinks-uk.org
• http//www.localfoodworks.org
• http//www.cymharrylandtrust.org
• http//www.alimenterra.org
• http//www.sustainable-cholderton.co.uk
• http//www.stroudcommunityagriculture.org
• http//www.foodvision.gov.uk

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My Contact Details

• Steve Garrett
• Chair, RCMA Social Enterprise Ltd
• South Riverside Community Development Center
• Riverside, Cardiff CF11 6ES
• Tel [phone]
• Email mail_at_riversidemarket.org.uk
• Web www.riversidemarket.org.uk