Mancunians need to reconnect with the way their food is produced, says a city-based co-operative of organic growers and buyers ahead of the launch of their new campaign tomorrow.
Manchester Veg People will be kicking off their drive to get the city’s ‘food revolution moving’ by cycling a trailer of locally grown produce to the Northern Quarter.
And co-ordinator Katie Brandon, who will be on the bike, believes the campaign will bring the community together to help the area’s businesses.
“It’s really important for people to get involved in this,” she said. “We have become disconnected from the way our food is produced.
“I think this is something which will really help that food network and bring us together better locally, producing fresh food and helping local businesses.”
Katie will first cycle to John Rylands Café to make a drop-off before ending at co-op member Common, a bar in the Northern Quarter, for the final delivery.
The fresh vegetables will then be used by the chefs for specials on the menu and will be available for people to taste.
And accompanied by volunteers dressed as veg, Katie not only hopes to raise £16,000 for the co-op, but also awareness of the issues surrounding the food supply chain.
“We are trying to raise money to buy our own van and get a cold store so we can really grow the co-op and get more local produce in Manchester,” she explained.
“We want to get more people using local produce rather than supermarket-bought stuff and really support growers because it’s not that easy to make a living doing that at the moment.
“But we’re also trying to raise awareness of what we are trying to do, the problems within the food supply chain and what we can do to solve them.
“We’re a co-op with all the growers and buyers working together to improve the situation.”
The campaign will run until July 20 and Katie revealed other events are in the pipeline, including Open Farm Sunday, hosted by Glebelands City Growers on June 9 in Sale.
Picture courtesy of Martin Cathrae, with thanks.
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