Location:
Swansea
Funding amount:
EAFRD (WG RC_RDP Wales) contribution
£5000.00

Project description:

  • To pilot outdoor evening produce markets at Parkmill with associated educational activity
  • To determine levels of demand for an evening produce markets at the Gower Heritage Centre outside courtyard by running a pilot
  • To deliver 3 x evening markets over the Summer period (1x inside the school holidays) including a ‘make your own pizza’ educational activity and other educational activities for children, young people and families 
  • The pilot builds on the success of Cae Tan CSA weekly pick up, the popularity of Little Valley Bakery, Hoogars’, Square Peg Café and Swansea Food Assembly and increased public interest in organic and local produce as well as more community focused business models
  • The proposal is based on direct experience of setting up similar events, availability of producers, cost of set up and promotion of events on a tight timeline and a working knowledge of current food trends
  • Project starts 11th June, ends 28th September 2018 with the market dates as 12th July, 9th or 16th August and 13th  

The project will advertise to visiting tourists using established social media channels and marketing expertise to promote locally soured high quality produce. The local offer will also be improved through the environmental commitments the project will ask the producers to demonstrate and the restriction of use of plastics.

What will the project achieve?

Although the project is aiming for the market to be community focused and driven, the intention is to establish the market as a leading food/local produce model, which will attract interest and visitors to Gower. Initially the market will open monthly, piloted through the summer (inside and outside of the school holidays) with a view to be opened from Spring to Autumn. With its focus on local providence and education, the market could become a leading initiative for the area and will attract interest nationwide.

The venture will demonstrate self-sufficiency between the rural production of food and a central sales point for food distribution, therefore fostering a sustainable way of living for the local community economy.

The project develops the range of foods already on offer to the local community. Cae Tan and Little Valley Bakery already offer a range of goods to the local community and our aim is to expand the range of foods available from the Gower Heritage Centre. The market is an approach creates better access, awareness and education about local food. 

The project will be promoted digitally and be a stepping-stone towards an online market place for weekly shopping. Creating an active digital community will shape the market for future events and encourage people to be active in their community.

Who are the project beneficiaries?

  • Local producers and farmers (across multiple rural areas)
  • Local community members (mainly Gower, Fairwood, Pennard and Bishopston)
  • Tourists

What was the result of your project?  

Levels of demand were determined by setting up a Facebook event to monitor a digital audience and we also manually counted attendees at the event. The level of demand exceeded our expectation however if the project was to do this again the event would have a station to consult with individuals about the projects end goal and collected names and email addresses for a group newsletters and future networking.

The 3 events were carried out successfully and included The Pizza Project, Down to Earth and SUP HUT family activities.

The pilot increased public interest in organic and local produce as well as more community focused business models.

All stakeholders contributed to the events and the project organisers were able to reach the right audience through sharing the events to individual audiences – Flyers and Social Media. The event aligned with a collaborated standard of Local, high welfare and or Organic Food.

Successful delivery of the pilot was achieved in the tight timeline and the group used their expertise in hospitality to deliver a successful food event a with up to date offerings e.g. – a contemporary food court with craft beer and nose to tail rustic cooking

The project was a success due to the range of key groups involved (Cae Tan Swansea Food Assembly Little Valley Bakery Gower Power and Squre Peg).

The producers allowed people to engage with local foods, speak to the farmers and food makers. Local brewers serving their beer (Beer Riff and Glamorgan Ales) and a lot of people wanted to know more about the product and were able to ask directly. The events had crafts stall and educational events such as Down to Earth and Forest School that attracted a different type of customer or customers with children who wanted to have a bite to eat and drink whilst also participating in family activities.

The events hosted a band and DJ that allowed customer to stay later an enjoy the music and food available and showcased activities such as SUP boarding from the Gower Heritage Centre to Three Cliffs, which gave a platform to advertised and for visitors to participate in different events. 

  • Number of networks established 1
  • Number of pilot activities undertaken/supported 1
  • Number of community hubs 1
  • Number of stakeholders engaged 20

What were the challenges?

The events catered for the local community however, the organisers noticed due to the events mainly being held of the summer holidays there was also a big demand for tourists to attend an event that celebrated local produce and talent.

Organisers talked to many people who were staying in holiday accommodation and at local campsites who enjoyed the event.

As a result of the consultations it determined a larger budget would be needed to advertise to tourist audience however on event 2 and 3.

Stakeholders used their wider network to tell and flyer local campsites. Again, if the demand was bigger other areas of GHC would have been utilised to cater for this.

Other lessons learnt was that the format did not work particularly well in generating sales as a produce market on the night. The organisers found it particularly difficult to get stallholders to commit to attending a new market that hadn’t been tried and tested, and the event was in the evening. After the first event the stakeholders recognised the difficulties of attracting and retaining local producers. 

There is a lot more work involved chasing payments with this model, however the producer and organiser is entitled to a fairer deal e.g. if the market is quiet both parties receive less and if busier both parties benefit 

Although the event was well attended, the event could have breed adapted to include the inside the heritage centre. This would allow room for more events and stalls, although a larger budget for marketing would be required to fill the space.

What’s next for your project?

Although the projects aim for the market was to be community focused and driven, the project would like to establish the market as a leading food/local produce model, which will attract interest and visitors to Gower. Initially it was thought the market would open monthly, piloting through the summer (inside and outside of the school holidays) with a view to be opened from Spring to Autumn. With its focus on local providence and education, the market could become a leading initiative for the area and would attract interest nationwide.

The project attracted enough interest to start looking at a larger permanent project ‘food hall’ at the Gower Heritage Centre, this is currently in discussion stage.

https://www.facebook.com/marketatthemillwales/

Further project information:

Name:
Clare James
Telephone number:
01792 636992
Email project contact
Social media: