- Growing food together
- Calling for hospital food standards
- Campaigning for bees, forage and a pesticide free city
- 2,012 new food growing spaces by the end of 2012
- For better school food, and food skills, and protecting children from junk food marketing
- An informal network of London restaurants and catering businesses that care about sustainability
- Evidence of the contribution of food and farming to climate change
- Find or set up a Food Co-op in your area
- Helping producers, consumers, retailers and caterers provide healthy and sustainable food
- Inspired by the London 2012 Food Vision, the campaign for healthy and sustainable food in catering
- Sustainable food news in London
- Working for sustainable food at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
- For bread made with natural ingredients
- Challenging businesses and citizens to make London the world's first Sustainable Fish City
- Practical advice for anyone interested in buying and using more sustainable food
download
Download a PDF version of How to set up a food co-op or buying group at work
resources
Visit the Food co-ops toolkit homepage, or follow the links below to view pages from this site section
This simple "how to" factsheet advises people in the workplace on how to make fresh, local, ethically produced food more accessible, whilst supporting local farmers by providing them with a local, regular and reliable outlet.
Food co-ops and buying groups are groups of people who regularly buy food together. This could just be a few people, or much larger. By pooling their buying power they can buy good food at a more affordable price. They may buy fresh produce, such as meat or vegetables direct from a producer, or dried goods from a wholefood wholesaler.
Setting up a food co-op means you can buy food that may not be available locally, and because you’re buying direct from farmers and wholesalers you can save a third or more off normal shop prices.
The factsheet gives advice on the ten Ps of running a food co-op:
- People
- Planning
- Produce
- Premises
- Practical resources
- Procedures and pricing
- Promotion
- Policies and principles
- Permits and licenses
- Progress
The publication concludes with two inspiring case studies of:
- A 25-member food co-op at the Government Office of Yorkshire and Humber who buy chicken, lamb, beef, pork and eggs from Swillington Organic Farm.
- Fred Shed food co-op, Leeds, where workers based in a shared office space, home to several community-based organisations, thought a food co-op would be a good way of getting staff in the shared office to think about, and buy, local and organic food at a good price.
- Food Chain North East in Newcastle, who buy produce direct from local farmers and suppliers then deliver individual bag and box selections to workplaces in the North East region.
Published by Sustain's Food Co-ops project, in partnership with the Soil Association and funded as part of the Big Lottery's Making Local Food Work programme. For more information on Food Co-ops, and to use the Food Co-ops Toolkit or Food Co-ops Finder, visit: www.foodcoops.org.
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