Some of Manchester's most sustainable food enterprises once again came together today, this time to explore: what is a local food system and what does it need to thrive?
Glebelands City Growers hosted a meeting of Moss Brook Growers, Unicorn Grocery, The Kindling Trust, Manchester Abundance, Hulme Community Garden Centre, DIG Food and the national organisation: Making Local Food Work, (MLFW).
The meeting and focus group came together to steer the Greater Manchester Land Army, but also to look more broadly at significantly increasing the production and access to sustainable food in our City.
“What is fantastic about this group, is that it is a true collaboration of activists and social entrepreneurs, a partnership addressing issues collectively, based on trust and a passion to make big changes to the way we grow, trade and consume food. Once again busy people have willingly given their time for free. Today's session has helped focus our minds on the challenges we face, but importantly it gave us the space to think more broadly about what a food system is and how a sustainable food system can operate.” Chloe Wilson, The Kindling Trust.
Making Local Food Work have taken a keen interest in our work here in Greater Manchester, supporting the Land Army to develop as a potential solution to a number of challenges the sector faces. MLFW is working with a number of local food systems across the UK and are looking at ways food systems can be sustained as a legacy of their work, which comes to an end in 2012.
Kindling and its partners are all too aware that we need to develop an alternative system of trading, which builds on the strengths of pioneers like Unicorn Grocery and Hulme Community Garden Centre whilst engaging more and more growers, traders and consumers.
Straight after the local food systems session many of the growers and buyers held their regular Manchester Veg People meeting to plan for its official launch and the supply of local organic vegetables to the University of Manchester.