Publications

Growing enterprise guide

The Growing Enterprise Guide offers urban growers detailed advice and practical information about how to sell what you grow in the city, whether at a small scale, like farmgate sales and one-off events, or as a full-fledged business.

04/05/2016

Cracking Community Cafes: Your people

This fact sheet looks at leading and managing the people involved in your community café. It suggests some simple things you can do to build a strong team and motivate everyone.

09/10/2013

Food & Finance: How small-scale food enterprises raise the money to grow

The Food & Finance report presents the findings of research into how small-scale food businesses and community food enterprises have secured funding to support their work. It also presents a summary of interviews with representatives from a range of lenders and funding organisations, and their views on challenges particular to the small-scale food sector.

14/01/2013

A Growing Trade - a guide for community groups growing food to sell in our towns and cities

This Local Action on Food report highlights the commercial opportunities for community grown food and showcases initiatives that are doing it already. The report shows examples of food that is being produced as close to the market place as possible and the opportunities for community food growing projects to make links more widely in the community as well as generate income to contribute towards project costs and to lift the ambitions of the people involved.

08/06/2012

A Healthy Profit - a simple guide to pricing the food you make or grow

This report aims to help community food organisations price their produce, to cover their costs and make enough healthy profit to fund other social and environmental activities. It explains why this is important both for them individually and for the alternative food system as a whole.

07/06/2012

News

Food Co-ops: feeding the community

From wholefood shops to veg box schemes, market stalls and buying clubs, food co-ops come in many shapes and sizes, but how are they faring in 2017. Food co-op researcher and Sustain volunteer Celia Plender finds out.

18/05/2017

Roll up, roll up: It’s Real Bread Week

The Real Bread Campaign's ninth annual celebration of the additive-free loaf and its makers is time to bake, buy and binge on the good stuff!

06/05/2017

Students eat sustainably -- when they can afford it

A survey conducted for the National Union of Students has found that students are willing to buy local, seasonal and Fairtrade foods -- but a quarter had ocasionally gone hungry because they could not afford food.

02/04/2017

Sustain support up for grabs to student food enterprises

Sustain, in partnership with NUS, are offering support and start-up costs for students in universities and colleges across the UK. As part of the UK wide ‘Our Bright Future’ programme students will be encouraged to set up their own food co-ops or buying groups, vegetable bag schemes as well as other small enterprises such as preserve making groups.

01/08/2016

Make fresh local food your new year's resolution

Finding good fresh food at an affordable price is not always easy - that's where Sustain can help. A dedicated adviser has now been appointed in every region in England to help people set up food co-ops.

18/01/2010

Twitter

Tweets by foodcoops

Food Co-ops

Building a network of community food co-ops and food buying groups across the UK to help new groups get off the ground and existing ones to thrive.

Student Food Enterprises

Food Co-op Finder

Food Co-op Toolkit

Case studies

Events & Training

About Us

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