I had an idea this morning, not that I'm about to put it into action myself in the next few months, but if anyone else likes it you are welcome to use it. It goes something like this:
* The basic aim would be for interested individuals to gradually "localise" our shopping lists one or two items at a time.
* Via a local food club which meets once a month at a suitable public venue (e.g. Test Match Pub) on a regular or well publicised date. Advertised widely in WB for anyone interested in local food.
* Each time there could be a theme (e.g. Eggs and dairy, bread and flour, etc etc) or just keep it very open.
* People compare where they get stuff from (using eggs as an example, one person might say that the farmer's market organic eggs are from Horncastle, cost £1.60 for 6, etc while other people will know of more local suppliers, and someone else will explain how you go about keeping your own chickens). The info is shared and those present can if they wish try to buy a more local option in future, now that they know about it. Details like price, "organicness" and food miles etc are shared.
* Local food producers with produce to trade (gardeners, farmers etc) could be invited for a 5 minute slot (or even on a "just turn up" basis to save on organisation and admin), and all "consumers" present would be invited to share their knowledge too.
* There could be a map with flags/pins/stickers to indicate locations so people can see the most local option, and maybe measure the miles from WB to each for the record.
* The info shared is collected for a "local food factsheet" which could grow each time, and perhaps have its own page on our shiny new TWB web site when it takes off. (This would of course involve time and effort for someone, and we might consider looking for a grant to pay for someone's time to collate the info and put it on the website).
This sort of club could be a precursor to or have a symbiotic relationship with a future local food co-op. The idea is to keep the admin and running of the monthly gatherings very simple, but if possible to capture the info and make it available to those who turn up to the meetings and anyone else who wants to view the info on the web.
