Plymouth’s Co-operative Food Organiser Kelly started in her post in November 2022 having worked for co-ops and in the community for over 15 years. Kelly works across Plymouth, is funded by NHS Devon, in partnership with Plymouth City Council and is employed by Four Greens Community Trust.
For the first six months, Kelly focussed on learning from Co-operation Town, based in London, who are very experienced at setting up food co-ops. Find out more on the Co-operation Town website.
In last 8 months Kelly has set up 4 food Co-ops based in North Prospect, Southway, Cattedown and at Plymouth University . Food Co-ops are where 20 people join as members and come together in a community location such as schools or churches for example. They will pay the same amount of money each, for example, £3.50 a week to buy food and also surplus fruit and veg supplied by Fare Share (the food surplus charity), learning new skills and saving money. Food Co-ops are owned and run by the members.
From our Food Co-op trials we have seen members saving money on food, making friends with other members and supporting each other, learning new skills within the co-op and attending cookery courses and maths courses.
A joint partnership between Millfields Trust, Four Greens, Food Plymouth and the City Council secured £255,000 of Shared Prosperity Funding to set up 6 new food Co-ops and two Co-op social supermarkets within the city. The first social supermarket will be trialled at Four Greens Wellbeing Hub from May 2024 and the second one will be in the Millfields HQ building in January 2025. Social supermarkets are run on co-operative principles, with up to 150 members able to purchase essentials at a low price. There will also be a mobile shop in a van that can visit other areas of the city and, finally, a small scale trial manufacturing unit turning surplus fruit and veg into jam and pasta sauces in partnership with Jar Squad and Millfields.
The movement is open to everyone, and the co-ops should help in a number of ways, the most obvious being financial due to the increased food prices because of the cost-of-living crisis, but each co-op also includes education for members ranging from learning new skills to having access to a Citizens Advice drop in.
The difference here is based on members working together to make a difference for ourselves.
Check out Kellys recent blog during Co-Op Fortnight.