Food Campaign Gives Rural Businesses A Boost

Local support is essential to ensure the survival of small producers, rural businesses and independent retailers, which is why this year's Make One Change campaign is more important than ever.

Back for the second year running, the Make One Change campaign, which runs throughout May, is asking shoppers to look closer to home for their groceries with a new strap-line 'Keep It In The Community'.

Local and rural food businesses are the key to the future of food. If supermarkets are allowed to continue to drive down prices, before we know it all of our food will be imported from abroad and UK food producers will cease to exist.

To safe-guard the future of our British food industry, we need to support small producers, shop locally and give our farmers a fighting chance. “Make One Change 2016 focusses on community spirit and we're asking shoppers to seek out their local shop or food producer, support or start up a community shop or farmers' market and grow their own crops and sell them through local retailers,” explains Anthony Davison, founder of food and drink not-for-profit website www.bigbarn.co.uk, who came up with the idea for Make One Change.

Make One Change puts shoppers in the driving seat, giving them a chance to vote with their wallets and see the difference they can make with just a few small changes. “Make One Change wants to put small businesses on the map and guarantee the future of our food industry,” continues Anthony. “It's a worrying time for British food. Small, family farms are going out of business because they can't make ends meet, tonnes of homegrown crops are being wasted every day because they don't meet the high standards of the supermarkets and more and more crops are being imported. If we don't act soon, we won't have a food industry to talk about,” he explains.

“BigBarn is all about driving new business to local food and drink producers and retailers and encouraging more people to shop locally. Make One Change supports this and this year's theme 'Keep It In The Community' aims to reignite peoples' interest in the high street and really get shoppers thinking about the way they buy their groceries and whether they do have time to visit the local butcher, get their fruit and veg from the farm shop, or sell a few of their own crops through their local store. Small changes can make a big difference, so every little counts!”

Last year Make One Change received publicity on a national scale and Anthony is hoping this year's campaign can go a step further and really start to bring small communities together through food. “There's a long way to go to really change the way people think about food and shopping, but we have to start somewhere. Make One Change is just one of the ways that we can support British farmers and growers and build a new audience for local food and drink,” concludes Anthony.

For more information on the Make One Change campaign visit www.bigbarn.co.uk/make-one-change, or to arrange an interview with Anthony contact Nikki at nikki@nicolawhitefordpr.com or call 07733 261843.


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Not-for-profit local food and drink website featuring produce from small producers and retailers across the UK