Food-Link Project

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The Totnes Food-Link project seeks to strengthen the links between local producers, within a 30 mile radius of the town and the retailers and restaurants within the town and build confidence and loyalty between these parties within the locality.

Over the past year Food-Link has explored the key challenges to the development of a re-localised food economy within the local food sector, these include:

•  Time spent growing and producing food is reduced because of the competing need to spend time distributing and marketing produce
• Retailers and restauranteurs interested in purchasing local food have limited time and resources to spend finding multiple small suppliers and dealing with the resulting number of separate invoices. The paperwork that producers have to deal with by having multiple, generally small-scale customers, is also a burden on farmers.The inability of small scale producers to be able to respond to the last-minute demands of restauranteurs
• Limitations of the English climate to provide fresh produce all year round.
• A lack of awareness and means of easy identification of where to source local food from  reduces people's ability to make informed choices
• The Food-Link project has concentrated on finding suitable solutions to these challenges and is currently exploring development of the following projects:
• A retail and wholesale Food Hub to provide a one-stop-shop for both members of the public and the retailers in town to access the range of local produce available in the area
• Marketing to promote local food and provide a story behind the produce, plus a Totnes label that simply and clearly identifies primary and secondary produce that are produced and sourced within 30 miles of the town. The development of a Saturday Local Produce Market
• In partnership with the proposed Atmos Project, exploring demand for different community owned processing facilities that will enable Totnes to provide foods out of season and create greater autonomy in the town.
• The development of a centralised distribution hub, where local food can be stored prior to being distributed to retailers around the town

 

If you would like to find out more or get involved please get in touch.

The project is managed part-time by Holly Tiffen.

Contact: Holly Tiffen on Tuesdays and Wednesdays on 07857 811994 or email holly@transitiontowntotnes.org