Viva Brighton April 2015 Issue #26

talking shop
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Foodshed
Micro-producer supporters
How did Foodshed begin? The idea behind Foodshed
came from visiting lots of events in Brighton
and meeting all these amazing micro-producers.
Some of them tried to get their products into shops,
but the shops wouldn’t pay them enough, and many
of them couldn’t afford to set up their own market
stalls, so I had the idea of setting up a shop where
small-scale producers could rent a shelf to sell their
products. It gives them a chance to try out new
products and get feedback from the public, and we
don’t take any commission from their sales. We also
offer support with their branding and packaging, we
do a lot of promotion via our website and they have
the opportunity to rent a pop-up stall in the Open
Market for free through us, so in some cases we are
seeing businesses grow from scratch.
What do you sell? About half of our shelves are
rented out, offering local honeys and jams, coffee
and tea. Our fresh fruit and veg comes from Ashurst
Farm in Plumpton. We sell dried foods, herbs and
spices by weight, so you only have to buy as much
as you need. In the supermarkets you’d have to buy
a whole bag, but doing it this way means you won’t
end up with left-over ingredients that you don’t
need, or if people are shopping on a budget, they
can just buy enough for the meal they’re making.
How does Foodshed benefit the local community?
We love to work with local projects, like
Emmaus, who currently use our garden space to sell
their plants and pots. Another great local group is
Synergy Creative Community, who work with people
living with mental health conditions, and produce
energy balls made from ingredients sourced
by the Food Waste Collective. One of our aims is
to become completely zero-waste. We’re almost
there – all of our own containers are bio-degradable
and only take about six months to decompose. We
encourage our customers to re-use their packaging,
and sell re-fills of soap and cleaning products. Any
left-over fruit and veg is collected by Ashurst and
composted, so nothing goes to waste.
What events do you have coming up? We run
regular craft and cookery workshops organised by
members of staff, and we hold film nights which
are normally followed by a Q&A with an expert on
the subject. We’ve applied for funding to run some
‘cook and crèche’ courses, because one area which
is really lacking is childcare. Lots of parents would
love to come and learn about cooking and nutrition,
but can’t afford the childcare costs. This way, the
children are taken care of, the parents can do the
cooking and we all sit down and enjoy the food
together at the end! Rebecca Cunningham
Unit 9, The Open Market, foodshedbrighton.com
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