Bringing Norfolk's farmers' markets to doorsteps
From Norfolk RCC
News Added:2009/11/25
A new social enterprise is taking farmers’ markets online and delivering the best local produce direct to shoppers’ doors in Norfolk and Suffolk.
Customers can pick and choose from a huge array of locally-produced food and drink at the click of a mouse, thanks to a new website.
From succulent wild boar to freshly-churned butter and award-winning pork pies, social entrepreneur Paul Campbell is taking on the big supermarkets with an eye on helping the community too.
Norfolk and Suffolk Local Food Ltd is providing employment opportunities for disadvantaged groups in the region plus six permanent jobs at the company's base near Long Stratton.
The first two staff gaining valuable work experience to help them back into the workplace began last week – the first of 70 placements in the next two years.
The launch of the project is the culmination of 19 months of hard work for 45-year-old Paul, a former mortgage broker who moved to Norfolk from Hertfordshire in 1993.
Paul, who lives near the Suffolk/Norfolk border with his wife Clare and their 16-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son, said: "Farmer's markets are great, but often the farmer can only make one or two markets a month.
"With an online market, you have the opportunity to offer local produce to customers all the time. I quickly discovered the wealth of incredible food we produce in the region and it fired up my enthusiasm.
"People often think that local food will be more expensive, but I found out that often, it's cheaper than shopping at the supermarket and you know that your food hasn't travelled far, is fresh and that you're supporting the local economy."
The Norfolk and Suffolk Local Food Ltd business will see customers placing orders online before 9am on Tuesday mornings and their deliveries being packaged and sent out at the end of the week.
Products available include rare breed meat, lamb, beef, pork, speciality sausages, hand-made truffles, local cheese, home-made conserves, chutney and cakes, and traditionally made bread.
Paul aims to have 60 plus producers on board within two years.
"When I was speaking to producers, I asked them all what was most important to their customers," he said. "One of our suppliers told me that to his customers, by far the most important thing was provenance - people wanting to know how far the meat had travelled, who the farmer was and how the animals were kept.
"I can tell you everything about the producers I work with because I know them all and I know how they work.”
But the venture is more than just a business, as Paul is committed to helping the community. He won a grant for £238,000 from the Big Lottery Fund's Local Food Grants project and a further £4,500 from UnLtd, part of the Millennium Project, which offers cash grants to projects which have a social impact in their communities.
"Being involved at the frontline of the financial meltdown, you start asking yourself what you've actually done with your life - what I've done is helped people to raise funds to buy things, and those people will be paying the price for those material things for 10, 20 or even 30 years," he said.
"I started to look at my life in a more holistic way and realised that my career has just been a means to an end. I hadn't put anything back into the community where I lived, and I wanted to change that.
"When I started researching the social enterprise aspect of the business, my networking took me to places I'd never even known existed - into the voluntary sector and to charities which help disadvantaged people in the community.
"I realised that I had a wonderful opportunity to start a business which helped local farmers and producers, brought their produce to a wider audience and helped people in the community to do something really worthwhile.
Paul won a grant for £238,000 from the Big Lottery Fund's Local Food Grants project and a further £4,500 from UnLtd, part of the Millennium Project, which offers cash grants to projects which have a social impact in their communities.
"I had to set some objectives to achieve in a two-and-a-half year period to gain my main funding, which include employing six permanent employees and having 70 voluntary positions available which will mainly be for people in disadvantaged groups who have learning difficulties or mental health issues," said Paul.
"Volunteers will be doing as much or as little as they feel they can, from unloading vans to stacking shelves, uploading new products to the website, packing boxes and going out with delivery drivers.
“I'm hoping that for many, it will provide a stepping stone into getting back into the employment market and that we can help people get the best out of themselves.
"It will be a non-profit distributing scheme, which means that once bills and salaries are paid, anything left over will be put straight back into the business - it certainly doesn't mean that we don't want to make a profit, because we do! I really hope that in five years time, we can open depots across the county. I think it's entirely possible.
"With every new venture, you sit back and think to yourself: 'what are the negatives?' but I really can't find any, only positives.
"I hope that people in the area will see this as a great way to support the brilliant producers we have and people in their communities. It's great food with a conscience."
For more information, and to place orders, visit Norfolk and Suffolk Local Food at welovelocalfood.co.uk.