Kindling is building an on-line one-stop shop for the sustainable food movement in Greater Manchester after securing support from Making Local Food Work (MLFW) & Food Futures.
The website will allow:
- A householder looking for local organic food to search food retailers and be shown the nearest options, opening hours, types of food sold and any specific dietary requirements they cater for.
- Someone interested in volunteering to find community projects in their area, what they do, what type of volunteers they are looking for; they could even contact the project directly from the website.
- A play-scheme looking to source bulk fresh fruit and vegetables could search by product type and find growers or delivery schemes in their area.
The website is the culmination of discussions at three FeedingManchester events and research done by the Kindling Trust in 2009 identifying obstacles and potential solutions for the local food movement in Greater Manchester. The website also builds on the fledgling Sustainable Food Directory which lists over 150 progressive food projects across Greater Manchester.
This new 'one-stop-shop' website will be an important tool in addressing the following problems:
For producers:
- Lack of experience/skills/finance to successfully market produce
- The need for new short-term markets with a quick turn around (to deal with gluts)
- Lack of co-ordination with other growers, which means flooding of the market for certain vegetables (thereby lowering prices), while others are unavailable locally
- Lack of co-ordination on deliveries meaning that smaller orders are not cost effective
For bulk buyers:
- Lack of time to research what producers are out there
- Lack of info on producers – finding reliable, local businesses that fit ethical criteria
- Availability (includes lack of producers)/lack of variety
- Increased complexity of dealing with multiple small producers
For community groups:
- Lack of knowledge about other projects in the local area
- Lack of co-ordination between groups over funding opportunities
- Lack of visibility to potential new volunteers
For consumers:
- Lack of awareness about what is in season locally
- Lack of information about the importance of sustainable food and where to buy it
We are aiming to launch on Valentines Day 2011, following the positive reaction to our previous "Love your local farmer" campaign in 2009. The website is being funded by MLFW & Food Futures (thank you!) and the detailed site brief can be accessed below.