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You are here: Home / Our Projects / Global to Local / Planet Local / Local Business & Finance, Local Food, Farming & Fisheries / Planet Local Initiatives

The Real Food Store

UK

Real Food StoreThe Real Food Store is the first community-owned grocery store in Exeter, UK The store was initiated in 2009 by Transition Exeter, a grassroots localist initiative affiliated with the global Transition Town movement. Given its grassroots beginnings, it’s not surprising that Real Food is much more than your average store: it’s a vibrant hub reconnecting local consumers with local producers, and reweaving the fabric of local interdependence severed in the process of globalization.

Since it’s opening in 2011, the store has been committed to forging strong relationships with sustainable local farmers and food enterprises, and to creating a robust local supply chain that reduces the distance between farm and table. Close to 100% of the store’s suppliers are from South West England, with 70% sourced from within the surrounding county of Devon (one of its main suppliers is a mere three miles away from the store). By sourcing locally, the Real Food Store recirculates money in the community, and helps to revitalize the local foodshed.

The store is owned and governed by Exeter Local Food Ltd, a Community Benefit Society with over 300 voting shareholder-members from the community, making it one of the largest community-owned and managed food enterprises in England. (A Community Benefit Society, or ‘BenCom’, is an alternative, not-for-profit business model in the U.K. for enterprises that exist first and foremost to benefit their communities.)

As a BenCom, Exeter Local Food was able to offer community investment shares to raise the capital needed to open the store — a great example of how localizing investment can generate vital community assets that pay important social dividends. In keeping with the store’s social mission, Real Food also organizes community and educational events, including bread-baking classes and supper evenings. The upshot: as it helps to rebuild the local food economy in Devon, the Real Food Store provides a much-needed alternative to the global industrial food system.

To learn more, visit The Real Food Store’s website.

Related


The Real Food Store

Category: Local Business & Finance, Local Food, Farming & Fisheries

Related

  • Global to Local
    • International Alliance for Localization (IAL)
      • Join the IAL
      • IAL Members
        • IAL Member Organizations
        • IAL Listserv
      • Video Project: Voices from the IAL
    • Webinar Recordings
      • Sacred Activism in a Post-Trump World Webinar
      • Talking Climate Webinar
      • People Power: Democracy and the Economy Webinar
      • Beyond Trump: The Path to Real Change Webinar
      • Bringing the Food Economy Home Webinar
      • A World Without ‘Free’ Trade: What it would look like and how to get there
      • Beyond ‘Free Trade’ – Alternatives to Corporate Rule
      • Education: Promises, Myths & Realities Webinar
      • Debt and Speculation in the Global Economy Webinar
      • A New Activism Webinar
      • Climate Change or System Change Webinar
      • Going Local Webinar
    • Animation: Going Local: the solution-multiplier
    • Insane Trade Short Film and Factsheet
      • Insane Trade! & Factsheet Translated
    • Planet Local
      • Culture
      • Eco Communities
      • Ecology
      • Health
      • Local Business & Finance
      • Local Energy
      • Local Food, Farming & Fisheries
      • Local Policy & Community Rights
      • Place-based Education
      • Sharing & Repairing
      • Planet Local Short Film Series
        • 1 – Introduction: The New Local Food Movement
        • 2 – Diverse Farming Systems
        • 3 – Local Food Webs: Exploring Systems of Distribution
        • 4 – Local Food Processors: AKA Making Delicious Food
        • 5 – Challenges & Solutions
        • 6 – Ecovillages & Networks for New Farmers
        • 7 – And Finally… Here’s a Little More Inspiration
    • Local Bites Podcast
      • Unpacking Global Empire from an Indigenous Perspective with Tyson Yunkaporta & Helena Norberg-Hodge
      • More than Just the Vegetables
      • Food Sovereignty in the Global Economy
      • Transition, Tradition, and Trade
      • Not-for-Profit Businesses
      • Love, Values, and Wellbeing Economies
      • Growing a Farmers Market from the Ground Up
      • Beautiful Places: A Conversation with Wendell Berry
      • Creating the Framework for a New Economy
      • From GDP to GNH
      • Rebuilding Healthy Communities: The Growing Ecovillage Movement
      • Seeds of Resilience, Seeds of Sovereignty
      • Why Local Ownership Matters
      • Local Alternatives to Globalized Development: A View from India
      • How to Feed the World? A Political Agroecological Approach
      • Helena Norberg-Hodge on how corporate ‘free trade’ deals threaten local communities and economies worldwide
  • Our Work in Ladakh
    • Past Work in Ladakh
      • Experiences in Ladakh 2018
      • Experiences in Ladakh 2017
    • Ancient Futures (book & film)
    • Local Futures’ History in Ladakh
      • Women’s Alliance of Ladakh
  • The Economics of Happiness
    • Economics of Happiness Conferences
    • The Film
    • DIY Economics of Happiness Workshop

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