We aim to help everyone in the Forest of Dean get local produce for a fair price to keep the forest thriving!
Who we are.
The Dean Forest Food Hub is an online farmers market aiming to help everyone in the Forest of Dean get local produce for a fair price to keep the forest thriving!
We’re all about keeping things local, sustainable, and ethical.
We work with producers to promote soil positive working practices including organic, pasture fed, fairtrade etc
We’d love everyone in the forest to be part of our amazing social enterprise but to do this we all need to change our choices!
Our goal is to be the first place you think of when you need to go shopping – we want to challenge the large supermarkets, by getting everyone in the Forest to buy good value locally sourced produce.
It’s simpler than you think. We just need you on board...
Why buy from us?
When you buy from us, you’re getting high quality food produced to high ethical standards, supporting local businesses, and you’re cutting down on your food miles. Where we can find it, we sell produce from the Forest of Dean area.
With us, local producers get a fair price, and we order weekly, so they can harvest or bake to order, cutting down on wastage and getting you the freshest possible produce. Where things aren’t available locally, we work as a bulk-buy club – we buy many of the dry goods and things like olive oil in bulk from ethical sources (usually other co-ops) and sell you a small quantity on demand.
We’re a network of food producers and consumers, working together in a not-for-profit co-operative to build a new sort of food system, one based on fairness and balance. Everyone contributes, everyone benefits.
Why we do what we do.
We want to make local food available on-line, giving all of us – producers and customers - an alternative to the supermarkets.
And as far as possible, we want to keep the money spent in the Forest circulating in the Forest.
Where we can’t find a local source, we want to buy from people who work the way we do – that’s the next best choice.
How it all works.
The Food Hub is more like a club than a shop. When you order through us, you are buying from the producers, using us as a delivery system. We cover most of the running costs of the hub on the bulk-buy items from further afield: we put a bigger mark-up on these, and that means that we only need to take 12.5% from local producers. But be assured we, and our producers, have to keep to the usual food-safety regulations for food production and distribution.
Help us grow our vision.
Don’t just buy from us, join us!
Are you a local supplier or producer interested in selling through the Hub, we have a growing list of members that are actively engaged in supporting local food - the perfect audience for your products.
As a producer or supplier you will:
Be able to market your produce or events via our website, Facebook page and weekly member’s newsletter
Have access to our full distribution network.
Set the sale price of all your produce
Have access to our customer base for market research and feedback.
Not sure if we're right for your product?
Along with the usual produce you would imagine from a farmers market, the Food hub has now expanded into selling other products, and not all of them edible. We have a whole host of unusual items that give you even less reason to visit your local supermarket. We stock spare seedling and plants, beeswax, hand knitted dishcloths, locally grown flowers, soap, detergent, coffee, oil , even hedgehog feed... So get in touch today to find out if what you offer meets the needs of the Forest.
Sign up to our newsletter
We send out a weekly newsletter to all customers who chose to receive it, it’s there as a reminder to get your order in before we close the shop, but it also tells a seasonal story about the food we eat, covering everything from interesting radio programmes about food and farming, seasonal wildlife and plants, and local events which may be of interest .
We get great feedback like this:
"I look forward to my Monday newsletter from the Food Hub, even though I live across the water in Somerset and can only get goodies as parcels when my sister crosses the bridge to visit. Through the weekly update, I feel connected in so many ways: to the Forest and the changing seasons there and here, to local events and national happenings and, not least to good things I might have missed on radio 4’".
We also try to hold an annual get together for all our members, it’s usually a bring and share lunch which is a great opportunity for customers, suppliers and volunteers to meet, exchange experiences and develop new ideas. Interested? click the link below... You can always unsubscribe easily at the bottom of the newsletter.
We are always happy to attend events and talk about why we do what we do and how to get involved, recent examples include the Forest Showcase and Bream show. We have also given talks at a local primary school about the differences between locally sourced sustainable food and the complex supply chains that the big supermarkets use and would be happy to do this for other schools and community groups in the Forest
"So good to have local produce available locally and without corporate packaging. Long may it last. Support your local food hub!"
Kirsty Abraham Blakeney Dec 23
Why join the Food Hub?
Hassle free produce delivered to a pick up point near you
Shop local & preserve the Forest community
Reduce your carbon footprint & use of plastic
Be part of something sustainable & ethical
It's simple.
