Good Food for Camden - Sustain

Good Food FOr CamdenCase Study 4:First University food co-op in LondonIn late 2008 a group of students from the School ofOriental and African Studies (SOAS) set up the first everuniversity food co-op in London, selling organic wholefoods to fellow students, staff, employees and visitors atwholesale prices. Any profit is put back into running theco-op which is entirely staffed by student volunteers.Through funding from NHS Camden, via the Good Food forCamden programme, the co-op now has publicitymaterials, serves about 180 customers and runs on aweekly basis, from the SOAS Students’ Union. Thestudents will also be doing some outreach work in theneighbouring deprived ward of Somers Town to supportothers in setting up food co-ops.The principle behind community food co-ops is that bycombining their buying power and ordering food in bulkdirect from suppliers, a group of people can buy GoodFood at a more affordable price.Co-ops are springing up all over the UK, more so sincefood prices have started to increase, but this is only thesecond food co-op established in Camden. To helpencourage more food co-ops in Camden, the SOAS foodco-op is planning awareness raising workshops that willexplain how to set up and run a co-op.For more information, contact the coordinator, RebeccaTemple (becca_temple@yahoo.co.uk). Find out more aboutFood Co-ops (www.sustainweb.org/foodcoops).Good Food for Camden: The healthy and sustainable food strategy21