I know most of you will be familiar with what Bridport Food Matters is all about, but, for those of you who are with us for the first time and others who may need a gentle reminder here’s a quick overview. Bridport Food matters is a multi-faceted organisation that has the encouragement, promotion and delivery of sustainable food for all at the heart of its mission.
As encouragers we work with existing local growers and producers to look at ways in which they can expand what they are are already doing, and are constantly looking to expand the range and amount of food produced locally by encouraging and enabling new people to start. During the past year we have hosted a series of workshop sessions to explore more fully what is already happening and where we go next.
As promoters, our website, newsletters and social media outreach is reaching an ever increasing audience. We have also been a significant presence at local events including the Bridport Food Festival where under the theme of Food Security we hosted two very lively and interesting panel discussions: ‘How are local producers building food security?’ and ‘How can we get good food on the table?’. As well as engaging people in food security and what we’re doing with our model community food hub, demonstration about Edible Bridport – including a no dig bed, gave space to health network – preserving foods and microgreens.
As deliverers, we collaborated with the Community Shed, Debbie from Watercleaves, and Edible Gardens to deliver a very successful plant swap in the spring. We have partnered with HOME in Bridport, a charity which runs the Edible Gardens project in Primary schools, and Sustainable Bridport to run the ‘Food Security For All’ project, focussed on the voices and needs of the under-served, with events in the schools and community allotment in the main housing estate.
This culminated in a feedback event for 40 invited support organisations and participants, including presentations about access to food from the Food Bank, mental health benefits of community allotment from Cowshed at plot 17 and primary age children learning about growing food from the Edible Gardens team. We run one project: ‘Edible Bridport’ (formerly We Dig No Dig), which is an initiative to increase the prevalence of vegetables and fruit grown in the town. This includes food grown in public spaces, visible to passers-by, offered for free, and tended by a network of volunteers from the local community. The first 4 community vegetable planters have been successfully established this year at various sites around the town, with more in the pipeline.
The most significant step forward this year has been the honing of our Mission Statement which now reads: Bridport Food Matters – a community hub promoting access to nutritious food for all, forever. In order to take that mission one or more steps closer to reality we have been working hard on both the virtual and physical realities of making it happen. The long term aim is a physical reality that would deliver a café, with long tables to eat together, and a pay it forward facility, and space for gatherings and events – which can be used by other food organisations; A demo kitchen for workshops, and commercial food processing A six day retail outlet for fresh food from local agroecological growers and producers; and ideally our own food growing area.
It is also envisaged that this hub, to be called ‘Nourish’ will have ‘spokes’ i.e. links with like-minded organisations who may use it, and / or outreach events in other venues. A single venue that can deliver all of that is some way off, and may not be feasible under one roof. However, a combination of the virtual, the town centre and the industrial estate, each delivering different facets is perfectly possible and possibly more achievable in chunks going forward. Over the past few months we have been looking at possible premises in the town centre and elsewhere and we are exploring becoming a Community Benefit Society (CBS). A CBS is an entity that conducts business for the benefit of the community. Profits are not distributed among members or external shareholders, but returned to the community.
All in all Bridport Food Matters is at an exciting crossroads where many years of hard work to get us to this point is becoming ever closer to becoming a physical reality.
Ian Bark, BFM Chair
