Publications

Growing enterprise guide

The Growing Enterprise Guide offers urban growers detailed advice and practical information about how to sell what you grow in the city, whether at a small scale, like farmgate sales and one-off events, or as a full-fledged business.

04/05/2016

Cracking Community Cafes: Your people

This fact sheet looks at leading and managing the people involved in your community café. It suggests some simple things you can do to build a strong team and motivate everyone.

09/10/2013

Food & Finance: How small-scale food enterprises raise the money to grow

The Food & Finance report presents the findings of research into how small-scale food businesses and community food enterprises have secured funding to support their work. It also presents a summary of interviews with representatives from a range of lenders and funding organisations, and their views on challenges particular to the small-scale food sector.

14/01/2013

A Growing Trade - a guide for community groups growing food to sell in our towns and cities

This Local Action on Food report highlights the commercial opportunities for community grown food and showcases initiatives that are doing it already. The report shows examples of food that is being produced as close to the market place as possible and the opportunities for community food growing projects to make links more widely in the community as well as generate income to contribute towards project costs and to lift the ambitions of the people involved.

08/06/2012

A Healthy Profit - a simple guide to pricing the food you make or grow

This report aims to help community food organisations price their produce, to cover their costs and make enough healthy profit to fund other social and environmental activities. It explains why this is important both for them individually and for the alternative food system as a whole.

07/06/2012

Growing Communities: manual of monitoring and evaluation

This report details the way in which the pioneering social enterprise, Growing Communities, monitors and evaluates its work. As well as explaining the criteria they use, it also explores why they think this is an important way of helping the community food sector improve their enterprises, whilst also providing evidence of their social and environmental benefits.

22/05/2012

Growing Manchester(s) Veg People - a guide to setting up a growers' and buyers' co-operative

This practical guide details the creation and development of an innovative growers' and buyers' co-operative aiming to increase the availability of organic, low-carbon food for Manchester, provided in a way that is fair for growers and buyers. It includes template documents to enable others to replicate the co-operative for themselves.

15/05/2012

The story of Moss Brook Growers - how to set up a horticultural enterprise from scratch

This manual gives a step by step guide to how Moss Brook Growers set up a mixed horticultural social enterprise from scratch. It will be invaluable reading to any group or individual looking to grow and sell fruit and vegetables.

15/05/2012

Food Supply and Distribution - evaluation of this strand of the Making Local Food Work programme

Independent evaluation of the Food Supply and Distribution strand of the Making Local Food Work programme, conducted by Dr Stuart Jones of the Programme for Community Regeneration at the University of Glamorgan

27/03/2012

Information Technology and small-scale food organisations: Is IT a nightmare?

This paper aims to share the experience that Sustain has had in working with community-run enterprises that trade in local and sustainable food, to develop Information Technology (IT) systems to support their work.

08/03/2012

Local Food Links: The first 10 years

A review of the development of Local Food Links by Tim Crabtree, its former director and one of the founders of the Bridport Centre for Local Food. The report charts the development of a social enterprise from the trading arm of a charity to an independent organisation focused on providing nutritious school meals made with local food.

15/06/2011

Food Co-ops Toolkit - a simple and comprehensive guide to setting up food co-ops

This 150-page, comprehensive toolkit has been produced as part of the Big Lottery funded Making Local Food Work programme to help more communities set up their own food co-ops and buying groups.

02/01/2011

How to set up a food co-op or buying group in a university or college

This simple "how to" factsheet advises universities, colleges and student groups on how to make fresh, local, ethically produced food more accessible to the local community, whilst supporting local farmers by providing them with a local, regular and reliable outlet.

01/01/2011

How to set up a food co-op or buying group at work

This simple "how to" factsheet advises people in workplaces on how to make fresh, local, ethically produced food more accessible to themselves and their colleagues, whilst supporting local farmers by providing them with a local, regular and reliable outlet.

01/01/2011

How to set up a food co-op or buying group in a school

This simple "how to" factsheet advises schools on how to make fresh, local, ethically produced food more accessible to the local community, whilst supporting local farmers by providing them with a local, regular and reliable outlet. A school food co-op can also support other programmes such as Healthy Schools, Eco Schools and Food For Life.

01/01/2011

Grow a Grocery: A guide to starting and growing a wholefood co-operative

This guide is designed to help bring more wholefood co-operatives into the world by spreading the business model tried and tested by Unicorn Grocery Worker Co-operative in Manchester since 1996. Unicorn Grocery was established to provide an alternative to the supermarket norm. They have achieved this goal on their own premises, but say they have not fulfilled their purpose until people stop driving across the country to shop with them. The business model is just one of many alternatives, but they would love to see more places like Unicorn in a better food system.

08/08/2010

An investigation into the workings of small-scale food hubs

One of the key challenges facing local food is the issue of economically viable and sustainable distribution. This report analyses 11 small-scale community-run food hubs, examining what they share in common, how they differ, and how the organisers have sought to overcome the challenges they face

01/11/2009

Building a Sustainable Food Hub - three reports on research into community food enterprises

These three combined reports share the learning from pioneering projects taking part in the Food Supply and Distribution strand of the Making Local Food Work programme. It explores different elements that can form part of buidling a sustainable food hub and looks at some of the challenges and issues that they face. In particular, it looks at issues around supplying food access projects, distributing surplus from allotments; and adding value through catering services.

01/11/2009

Food co-ops

Publications

Food Co-ops Toolkit - a simple and comprehensive guide to setting up food co-ops

Growing enterprise guide

Cracking Community Cafes: Your people

Food & Finance: How small-scale food enterprises raise the money to grow

A Growing Trade - a guide for community groups growing food to sell in our towns and cities

A Healthy Profit - a simple guide to pricing the food you make or grow

Growing Communities: manual of monitoring and evaluation

Growing Manchester(s) Veg People - a guide to setting up a growers' and buyers' co-operative

The story of Moss Brook Growers - how to set up a horticultural enterprise from scratch

Food Supply and Distribution - evaluation of this strand of the Making Local Food Work programme

Information Technology and small-scale food organisations: Is IT a nightmare?

Local Food Links: The first 10 years

Food Co-ops Toolkit - a simple and comprehensive guide to setting up food co-ops

How to set up a food co-op or buying group in a university or college

How to set up a food co-op or buying group at work

How to set up a food co-op or buying group in a school

Grow a Grocery: A guide to starting and growing a wholefood co-operative

An investigation into the workings of small-scale food hubs

Building a Sustainable Food Hub - three reports on research into community food enterprises

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Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming