Local Food Programme evaluation
Local Food was launched in November 2007 and is a £50 million open grant scheme that distributes grants to a variety of food related projects in order to help make locally grown food both more accessible and more affordable. The types of project involved include food co-ops, allotments, education and learning (food related), farmers' markets, community food growing, box schemes, composting, the celebration of food cultures, community supported agriculture, food distribution, community gardens and city farms.
The CCRI, together with f3, had been contracted by the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (RSWT) to conduct an ongoing evaluation of the programme. In order to do this, 25 in depth, face-to-face, case studies will be conducted with a range of different project types, together with a further 65 telephone-based case studies. The evaluation will also examine the overall administration of the scheme and make an assessment as to the programme's legacy and need for future funding support. Ongoing progress reports will be produced at three monthly intervals.
This evaluation will run from December 2009 through until March 2014 and involves Dr James Kirwan as project manager, together with Professor Brian Ilbery and Dr Damian Maye from the CCRI and Joy Carey from f3.
