Open Food Co-ops

• Open Food Co-ops
  • Key links
  • Summary
  • What is an Open Food Co-op?
  • What needs will an Open Food Co-op satisfy?
  • How will it work?
  • How might a food circle work? (names and activities are hypothetical):

Key links

• Open Food Co-op Blog for progress and the current state.
• Participating people and organisations
• Organisational structure: as a Viable Systems model

Summary

We are developing an 'Open Food Co-op' as a step towards a local sustainable community. Our pilot project will take place in Diss, Norfolk. See our Open Food Co-op Blog for news on the current state of the pilot.

What is an Open Food Co-op?

An Open Food Co-op is a partnership. It is a group of people committed to working together for the common purpose of providing themselves with quality food, produced predominantly locally. Some of the partners will be principally businesses – farmers, bakers, cheesemakers and other producers, distributors such as box schemes and traders such as local shops. Others will be principally consumers, but with the distinction somewhat blurred.

The partnership will be much more than just a buyer/seller relationship and will have much broader social aims than providing cheap food. It will also include a major social element with regular social events such as shared meals, garden or farm work, parties, outings, fairs, etc. to create and maintain a strong sense of community and common purpose.

It will create a range of opportunities for either paid or voluntary work, including

• organising the food co-op and events it puts on,
• cooking/preparing food for other members or for sale,
• helping with deliveries,
• occasional work in fields, gardens, shops or warehouses,
• as ‘computer agents’ entering offers, wants or orders for others.

Although most of the business of the co-op will be conventional (people buying in person from shops or markets traders that are part of the co-op,) there will be a major online element to it too. For this purpose, we are developing a web-based ‘community trading system’ to support it.

What needs will an Open Food Co-op satisfy?

• It will mean more food that is produced locally, using organic or near-organic methods, without industrial processing, and with minimal packaging. Such food is preferable on grounds of health and flavour and numerous surveys have shown a high consumer demand for it. An Open Food Co-op will systematically inform consumers about the relevant local businesses and their offerings. Through accounts, regular orders and delivery it will give these small, local businesses some measure of balance with the supermarkets.
• It will create a food system that is environmentally sound and sustainable. Global distribution of food is a major contributor to transport and hence to global warming. Intensive crop production is harmful to soil fertility and creates pollution. Food packaging is a major cause of waste. By promoting an efficient local food production system, an Open Food Co-op reduces all these problems.
• It will help maintain a stable market and additional support for quality local food supply chain businesses. Local and small scale production has been pushed into marginal economic niches by the growth of the large multiples, whose methods do not suit them. The buying power of the supermarkets enables them to offer prices that are uneconomical to small producers and conditions of uniformity that are unnecessary and make significant parts of their crop unsalable. The Open Food Co-op will create a market that gives the local supply chain priority.
• It will generate a range of part-time jobs or opportunities for community service for people with limited incomes, or who are housebound and disabled. An Open Food Co-op will provide such people with a range of tasks – organising, acting as a computer agent (entering orders, wants, offers), cooking, driving, work in fields and gardens. It will provide small amounts of income and opportunities for service as well as some food that is low cost and even free.
• It will create an increased sense of local community.In a world dominated by large corporations and mass media, our sense of active, practical connection to our local communities has diminished to near vanishing point for many people. An Open Food Co-op would provide an opportunity to recreate that sense of active engagement around a basic need: food.
• It will provide a prototype for a broader, sustainable, community-based economy. This pilot Open Food Co-op in Diss, Norfolk is meant as a prototype in which we will learn what works and what doesn’t. It will serve as a starting point for a broader community trading system in Diss not limited to food. It will be designed to act as an easily replicable model for other communities. As part of the project we will evaluate its function and report widely on the results.

How will it work?

The Open Food Co-op will be organised into groups of people that know each other where local co-ordination and mutual support can help:

• on the business side: farmer’s market traders, existing groupings such as Eostre Organics (the organic farmer’s co-operative), Tastes of Anglia (the producer’s organisation) and participating shops, restaurants and cafés in Diss.
• on the consumer side: Food Circles, organised either geographically, (ex. Fair Green Neighbourhood Association), or through some existing group (ex. DC3 Church).

The Open Food Co-op will support a range of food-related activities so that its functioning will vary according to the needs and desires of the participants.

How might a food circle work? (names and activities are hypothetical):

• Mr. A. is a keen gardener, who shares his excess produce with other members of the circle. He is also a competent computer user, and handles the accounts for those members of his circle who don’t want to use computers.
• Mrs. B, a good cook, organises a shared meal for people in her Food Circle once a month. She also sometimes prepares meals for those who are busy, and sells some of her soups at the Farmer’s Market.
• Mr. C. is one of the volunteers who run a twice weekly delivery run, collecting from the participating shops, and a delivery run from the Farmers Market.
• Mrs. D, who is quite elderly, is able to walk to the participating shops, select her food, charge it to her account, and have it delivered to her home by Mr. C. This is more convenient for her than the supermarket. She also takes in deliveries for a couple of neighbours who are at work till late, which helps them and gives her a little extra social contact.
• Ms. E, a busy professional woman, has regular orders of bread, cheese, milk and vegetables delivered from the participating shops, distributors and farmer’s market. To these she adds special offers from the participating suppliers. She sometimes buys ready meals from Mrs. B.
• Mr. F, an unemployed young man, helps with the driving for the deliveries, and also does occasional shifts for one of the farmers and in one of the shops. His diet, health and social life have been greatly improved by the Open Food Co-op.