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LOCAL FOOD – YOUR HELP NEEDED

A public meeting will be held on Wednesday 6 May at 7pm at the Georgian House Hotel, High Street, Haslemere, GU27 2JY (click here for map) to launch the project in the town and to recruit volunteers to join an active team in leading the research locally. Anyone interested in finding out more about the project is welcome.

For more information contact Karen Gardham, South East Regional Co-ordinator for the Mapping Local Food Webs project, email kareng@cpre.org.uk 

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An innovative new project is set to explore the benefits of local food to the local community, economy and the countryside around Haslemere.  The project, part of a national initiative led by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) [1], will support the local community to map their local food network, or ‘food web’ [2] in and around Haslemere [3].

Karen Gardham, CPRE’s new South East Regional Co-ordinator for the project, said:

‘This is a fantastic opportunity to develop and strengthen links in the local food network, including those between producers, suppliers and retailers, right through to those of us who’d like to buy and eat more local food.’

‘The Mapping Local Food Webs project will help to bring all these strands together. Getting the community involved and making the most of people’s local knowledge are central to the project.  We hope that people from all walks of life will take part.’

The project is already receiving strong local backing. Councillor Melanie Odell, Deputy Mayor and Chair of the annual Haslemere Food Festival, said:

‘We are very excited that Haslemere is involved in this project. We produce some fantastic food locally, and this initiative complements our thriving Farmers’ Market, Food Festival and award-winning Haslemere Rewards scheme to encourage local shopping.’

‘We do need to get as many people in the town aware of the range and scope of locally available produce and also provide an easy method to get what is produced here onto people’s plates.’
 
The project has also gained the support of the local Transition Town group. Clive Davidson, Chair of Transition Town Haslemere, said:

‘Transition Town Haslemere welcomes the opportunity this project brings to engage the local community in researching local food and the environmental and social benefits this could bring. We are excited about getting involved in the project to reconnect people with where their food comes from.’

The project is supported nationally and locally by Big Lottery funding as part of the Making Local Food Work programme, which aims to reconnect people with the land through food and community enterprise. [4]

At the meeting it is hoped more volunteers will be recruited to form a ‘Local Research Team’. Volunteers will be needed for many different roles including steering the project, interviewing local shoppers, sellers and producers of local food, and running a workshop for local residents.
 
‘The meeting will be a great chance to find out more about local food and the project, join the team of volunteers and to see how the findings could support and develop the local food web in and around Haslemere.’ Karen Gardham concluded.

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NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. CPRE, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, is a charity which promotes the beauty, tranquillity and diversity of rural England. We advocate positive solutions for the long-term future of the countryside. Founded in 1926, we have 60,000 supporters and a branch in every county. President: Bill Bryson. Patron: Her Majesty The Queen. www.cpre.org.uk

2. A food web consists of the links between farmers and growers, processors, suppliers, local food shops as well as other local food providers (such as farmers markets, box schemes, community supported agriculture and food cooperatives) through to consumers.

3. The Mapping Local Food Webs project is a new national initiative to engage the skills and knowledge of local people to research the spread of local food networks from consumer to producer and their impact on the local community, economy and the countryside.  In total the project will cover twenty two towns and cities across England.  It aims to achieve better understanding of the challenges facing local food networks, to build links within communities between residents, shopkeepers, food producers and policy makers, and to create opportunities to influence local, regional and national policy and planning decisions.  The project forms part of the Making Local Food Work programme funded by the Big Lottery from 2007-2012.  The project is led by CPRE with the support of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming. www.sustainweb.org

4. Making Local Food Work is a 5-year, Big Lottery-funded programme aiming to reconnect people with the land through food and community enterprise. A consortium of seven organisations, led by the Plunkett Foundation, is pooling its expertise to develop and promote different types of community food enterprise, giving advice to people all over England looking to re-engage and help others access good, fresh, local produce with clear origins. Our vision is to secure the long term future of thriving communities that are strongly connected with land, that understand where their food comes from and are empowered to respond to their own needs using community-led solutions. For more information, please go to www.makinglocalfoodwork.co.uk