Twelve years ago, Community Housing Cymru set up an Award scheme to recognise housing innovation in memory of a special person - Pat Chown. Pat gave a big part of her life to helping others and spent much of her working life in helping to meet people's housing needs in Wales.
Gwynedd-based horticulture, catering and joinery social enterprise tells us what makes the business a success, and about its plans to grow the organisation further.
Riverside Community Market Assoc
Date: 04.11.2010
Fresh local food + food education is recipe for health and happiness in Cardiff
Before Steve Garrett set up Riverside Community Market Association (RCMA) in Cardiff 12 years ago, local food producers had no easy way of selling their wares to the public. And residents in the area struggled to get access to genuinely fresh, Welsh food, straight from its source.
Now, with RCMA running three markets in Cardiff, offering selling opportunities to more than 60 producers, Cardiff is becoming a real hub for fresh food. And, what’s more, residents are also learning plenty about food production and healthy living thanks to the company’s education programmes.
Director Steve Garrett says: “Before we started there was nothing like this in Cardiff, we’re really proud of what we’ve created. We’ve expanded beyond our weekly market in Riverside, which runs every Sunday and we now also have a weekly market on a Saturday in Roath and another on alternate Fridays in Rhiwbina. We have more than 50 volunteers, plus the equivalent of six full time staff.”
The company receives rental cost from stall holders to sustain itself – currently, more than half of its £150,000 turnover is from trading activities. The rest if from grants, which are used to improve knowledge about, and access to, fresh and healthy food for Cardiff’s inhabitants - particularly in poorer areas.
Steve and his team also run an award-winning community garden which attracts up to twenty local residents a week who want to learn how to grown their own food and enjoy the social and recreational benefits of gardening.
For more information, see http://www.riversidemarket.org.uk, or catch the business on Twitter: @RCMAmarkets.
