Cardiff School of City and Regional Planning

Aims of Project

The purpose of this evaluation project is to investigate how community food enterprises can be effectively scaled up, in a sympathetic and relevant way that does not undermine the values and motivation of these enterprises. There are 3 main aims:

1. to analyse the current characteristics of the community food sector;
2. to forecast how this sector can mature and grow in the coming years; and
3. to understand if cross‐collaboration – enterprises consciously working together to achieve joint aims – is an integral aspect of the future for community food enterprises.

A number of key questions will be explored, for example:

• What is required to give the community food sector the scale and impact required to be considered a necessary and relevant part of England’s food and farming future?
• What are the main limitations and barriers to the growth of the community food sector?
• What policy changes/programmes of action are required to further the development of the community food sector?
• How important are relationships/support systems to the long‐term health of a community food enterprise?
• What is the role of secondary support structures^[2] in the future of community food sector? What are their strengths and weaknesses, and can they support the hypothesis that ‘scaling up is really connecting up.’
• Is there a need to move away from reliance on small scale, volunteer-led start-ups towards more “strategic” or managed start-ups, scale-ups ands replications?
• What are the benefits of linking “public interest” or “community benefit” values (including trusteeship, volunteering, altruism and philanthropy) with mutuality and employee ownership?
• How can the community food sector benefit from broader social enterprise developments such as social investment, community share issues, community asset development, multi-stakeholder mutuals, employee ownership, and joint ventures such as the one existing between Danone and Grameen Bank?

Activities

The research project will comprise 5 main phases:

1. Understanding the community food sector – its role and its context in the UK (June 2010-October 2010)
   The first phase of the research will concentrate on the collection and review of available baseline data, to build an understanding of the nature of the community food sector, its internal variation and its main dynamics. Data collected will be utilized to develop a model of the community food sector, looked at from both a historical perspective, (identifying its main developmental trends over the last 15 years); and a supply chain perspective, by locating community food enterprises along the chain – from primary production through processing to catering and retail.
   
   
2. The growth of the community food sector: key drivers and real / potential barriers (November 2010-February 2011)
   The second stage of the research will explore factors that can affect the growth of the community food sector and its sustainability, including
   1. the policy drivers of growth;
   2. assessment of demand-side barriers;
   3. assessment of supply-side barriers, in particular the difficulties for community food enterprises in accessing key factors of production;
   4. Stakeholder motivations.
      
      
3. Identification of best practice examples and their mechanisms for networking, business support and secondary services (March 2011-July 2011)
   This phase of the research will include two main research tasks:
   1. understanding good practice in social enterprise development, including development of a framework for assessing support interventions; and
   2. assessing the potential role of secondary structures in the community food sector.
   The research team will also prepare a number of case studies, drawn from the UK and overseas, which demonstrate innovative ways of overcoming barriers to growth.
   
   
4. Distilling key lessons on growth (August 2011-October 2011)
   The research teamwill perform a cross-cutting and in-depth analysis of the findings from phases 1,2 and 3. The main goal of the analysis will be to identify key issues, tensions, and consequent potential scenarios about sustainable growth in the community food sector.
   
   
5. Final Report and briefing document (November 2011-February 2012)
   The final stage of the research will be to detail possible future scenarios for growth and the associated networking, business support and collaboration mechanisms which would be required.

Additional Information

If you would like further information about the project, or would like to contribute in some way, please contact Tim Crabtree: tim.crabtree@phonecoop.coop