Details of the 2014 Local Food Challenge can be found here.
Chepstow Local Food Challenge 2013
The challenge we set ourselves was ‘for a month, eat as far as possible, food grown or produced within a 30 mile radius of Chepstow’. We chose September because there’s a good range of local fruit and vegetables available, and we felt that doing it for less than a month wouldn’t be a fair trial.
We deliberately left it a bit vague and stressed that ‘as far as possible’ would mean different things to different people. In the event, some people took the challenge very seriously – making their own pasta, for example, giving up coffee, taking home-grown salad instead of eating canteen lunches. Others made more modest changes, for example substituting local meat and vegetables from the farm shops or market for supermarket products.
How and why it came about
The idea came up a year earlier, over an end-of- harvest meal during which rather a lot of home-made beer, wine and cider was consumed. ‘Wouldn’t it be a good idea. to try a Chepstow version of the Fife Diet?’[1], one of us said, and suddenly we were committed to the idea. Our aims were:
- to see if we could reduce our carbon footprint by eating locally;
- to see what it would be like if we had to be reliant on local food, and
- to celebrate the food that is available locally.
What we did
In the months leading up to September, members of Transition Chepstow’s Food Group did a certain amount of preparation.
We put together a Local Food Directory (2014 version here) I think we were all surprised at just how much was available within around 30 miles.
We obtained funding from Chepstow Town Council to cover the cost of 10 ‘local food’ blackboards, a local recipe competition prize and some incidental expenses. The Town Council also supported the challenge by putting on extra Farmers Markets in the town (weekly instead of fortnightly) and trying to get a wider range of stalls.
We set up a Facebook Group (Chepstow Local Food Challenge) which really helped. We used it to swap recipes and ideas, tell each other about spare apples and marrows, and generally offer each other moral support.
We launched the challenge with the help of a local pub – the Coach and Horses in Welsh Street. They put together a fantastic menu of tapas – world recipes, sourced locally.
During the month we also held a fruit and vegetable swap, where anyone could bring along spare produce and swap it –or else offer it for sale, with the money going to charity.
We don’t know exactly how many people participated because there was no formal sign- up process. The Facebook group has 60-plus members, though all may not have participated actively, and from comments from local shops etc perhaps as many again joined in to some extent.
Feedback
The figures below are taken from a short web-based survey using Survey Monkey, publicised through the Transition website, the facebook page and emails. There were 15 responses.
93% said they found taking part in the food challenge a positive experience. Reasons included:
- explored new local foods…. enjoyed learning about others’ experience
- having to think differently about what to buy
- a focus on what was and wasn’t available locally
- joining with others to support local producers and the economy
Most people said the challenge did change the way they shopped and ate. 27% said ate differently; 80% shopped differently; 53% cooked differently;
- I consciously wasted less food
- Mainly just didn’t buy things that were from a distance
- I ate more ‘naughty’ things such as pies and we had more meat and veg rather than our usual veggie rice and pasta
We asked participants what they were able to buy from local sources, and the answers were revealing:
- Vegetables 100%
- Meat/fish 87%
- Fruit 80%
- Dairy 60%
- Drinks 47%
- Cereals 0%
Although people continued to buy things such as tea, coffee, bananas and lemons, the big gap was local cereals. The nearest sources of locally grown flour we were able to locate were in the Cotswolds, Somerset and Powys. One participant used this ‘fairly local’ flour to make her own pasta. We aren’t aware of any barley or oats grown locally, and although there is plenty of corn grown as far as we know this all goes for cattle feed. We did find almost-local spelt, which works well as a substitute for rice.
Many people were concerned that eating locally would be expensive, but when we asked this 47% said no, 40% yes, a bit, 13% didn’t know.
- some things like vegetables were cheaper, meat and bread were more expensive.
However, it did tend to be more time-consuming. When asked this, 60% said yes, 33% said no, 7% didn’t know.
- shopping took up more time
- needed more planning
Most people said that there would be lasting effects from the food challenge:
- 93% will eat more local food
- 93% will shop in places that sell local food
- 85% are more interested in where food comes from
- 69% will grow more food
Participants were very positive about the Farmers Market: 80% shopped there and comments included:
- a regular Farmers Market every fortnight is confusing – easier if it is weekly
- Having extra Farmers Markets was brilliant
- I really enjoyed going to the Farmers Market and it has become part of my weekly routine
Taking it forward
We hope the Food Challenge will not be a one-off event but part of continuing activity to develop Chepstow as a town with a buoyant local food economy. In particular, we would like to see weekly markets thriving, more shops stocking local food and drink, more pubs and restaurants in the town using local produce, and a wider range of local produce available. In addition to the cereals gap, we would love to see locally-produced mushrooms, yoghurt…… We hope the small businesses and farms around Chepstow can rise to this challenge.
We plan to repeat the Food Challenge next year, and would like to see:
- wider ownership – including local producers/shopkeepers and other community organisations
- a more formal ‘sign-up’ process so that we can keep in touch with participants and have a better idea of numbers
- some arrangements in place for bulk-buying harder-to-source local products such as cereals and oil
- a wider range of events – especially, it would be great to have the local food festival back in Chepstow
- more entries in the local food recipe competition – maybe using a different approach
- pubs/restaurants actively featuring local food.
You can read about the experience of other communities who have tried similar experiments here:
http://www.fifediet.co.uk/
http://30milefood.transitionipswich.org.uk/
If you would like to get involved, please email foodchallenge@transitionchepstow.org.uk
Stay in touch with other participants on the Local Food Challenge Facebook site.