A Dundee charity have launched an online fresh food market with the aim of giving Dundonians a new way to shop locally and sustainably.
The Gate Church Carbon Saving Project have launched the new click and collect initiative NeighbourFood, an online shop where locals can buy from a number of fresh local producers.
Dundee is the sixth area in Tayside and Fife that has now joined the country-wide NeighbourFood initiative, with digital farmers’ markets already in Blairgowrie, Errol, Crieff, Cupar and Auchterarder.
The carbon-saving project, which also runs the West End Community Fridge, launched the initiative on Thursday with the aim to encourage locals in Dundee to shop more sustainably and decrease their carbon footprint.
What food is on offer?
So far, the producers available to purchase from the online market are:
- Preserves from Organic Welltree in Perthshire
- Meat and diary Incheoch farm in Alyth
- Soap from Smelleez in Blairgowrie
- Organic vegetables from The Wright Root in Blairgowrie
- Wine and cider from Carin O’ Mohr in Errol
- Honey from Tay Bees and Honey in Dundee
- Wild game from Woodmill Game in Newburgh
- Home bakes from Love of Loaves in Perth
- Zero waste shop the Little Green Larder in Dundee
- Fish from Stephenie’s Fresh Fish in Cellardyke
- Fresh diary from Dundee Dairy Co
- Vegan food from Marwick Foods in Tayport
- Artisan tea from Strathearn Tea in Perth
How does it work?
The online initiative works as a weekly farmers market so locals can pre-order their food online to either collect or have delivered by electric car.
Dundonians can pre-order their food at the NeighbourFood Dundee website from Friday to Tuesday to either collect or have delivered on Thursdays.
Project co-ordinator, Lynsey Penny, said: “We’re trying to offer an alternative and really connect people to all the producers around who make all this amazing food.
“I think Dundee is such an amazing location for this because we’re in the middle of Fife Perth and Angus, there’s so much produce around and it’s just making that more easily available to a public who want to buy that stuff.
“NeighbourFood is a social enterprise, it was started in Ireland and I think a few years ago a few others popped up in Scotland.
“The Blairgowrie one has been going for a couple of years and it’s been really successful and we thought, ‘all the wee towns have got one surely there’s a place for that it Dundee?’
“We’ve all been waiting on something like this to happen and it’s never happened so we thought we’d just do it ourselves.”
How does the initiative reduce your carbon footprint?
Lynsey hopes that the initiative will help locals in decreasing their carbon footprint.
She said: “This is part of a bigger project for us, we have the community fridge on the Perth Road and we’re always encouraging people to take that step to a more sustainable way of living.
“We really want to encourage people to support local business, their local economy, their local community and reduce their carbon footprint at the same.
“As a project we’re always encouraging people to think about where their food comes from because a lot of people have got very busy lives and they don’t realise when their doing a supermarket shop where some of that food is coming from.
We’re advocating for buying things when they’re in season
“We’re advocating for buying things when they’re in season when they’re from a local farm, which supermarkets are doing more of these days.
“But this really lets them get to know the people growing their food, exactly how far it’s travelled, they know that it’s in season and it’s not been flown from South America.
“We would like to do more in-person markets in the future so that people get the chance to meet the person who grew their broccoli.”
The carbon-saving project hope to use the small income they generate from the NeighbourFood to fund future community projects such as the community fridge.
