What is this group all about?

Well...

After talking with friends it became apparent that there was a desire among a few Weston-super-Mare locals to buy our food from somewhere other than a supermarket. I won't go in to the reasons why, you can decide that for your fine selves.

Of course there are small outlets in the town to buy food from, as well as great delivery schemes such as Riverford Organic and Cossey Produce. But what about all those 'essentials' such as baked beans or washing up liquid or sugar or I don't know, cashews? That question led me to another great site, Somerset Local Food Direct. However, there was further to go, as the supplier for some of their non-fresh goods is an aptly named Bristol based food co op - Essential Trading. So, why not skip the middle man and their margins a bit more, I thought.

Well as luck can have it, Essential Trading will allow us to do just that. (I say luck, what I actually mean is hours sat behind a laptop making a spreadsheet as well as many hours more working out quantities, lots of maths and the bit I'm looking forward to - making cups of tea for like minded folk when they come to collect their orders :) The main conditions Essential Trading ask us to comply with are that the group consists of at least 4 households, the minimum order is £250 and we are open to new interested people - we are! Hello new interested person!

The idea is pretty simple. We want to save money, buy mainly organic and/or fairtrade and as a big bonus, avoid the supermarket. Oh, and we thought on the first order we should add 5% to the catalogue price in order to make a donation to fantastic Weston-super-Mare Foodbank.

I just need to make it clear that we are a food buying group and the intention is to source the best quality ingredients for the best possible price from the best possible supplier. For example, if we bought 500g of couscous from Somerset Local Food Direct (supplied to them by Essential Trading) it would cost £1.99 per 500g. If we were to buy and split a 5kg bag of couscous directly from Essential Trading it would cost £1.19 per 500g.

However - Somerset Local Food Direct win my vote for their Fussels 5l rapeseed oil for £19.99 which is produced and bottled in Bath. Essential Trading are a good start - but this is surely just the start of the journey!