Fresh. Local. Fair.

The Local Veg Box was a Manchester-based social enterprise built around a clear vision: everyone deserves access to fresh, healthy food — regardless of income. At a time when one in ten people in Manchester were skipping meals to feed family members, we believed there had to be a better way.

We began as a group of friends frustrated with food prices and disconnected food systems. With support from Action for Sustainable Living, we began bulk-buying local produce and sharing it with neighbours. It quickly grew. Within a year, we were delivering to 70 customers across South Manchester each week, and had reached over 300 households.

But we didn’t stop there.

We launched a campaign to address food poverty directly, aiming to:

  • Donate £2,000 worth of fruit and vegetables (at cost) to help establish food banks
  • Reach 1,000 “hard-to-reach” or vulnerable individuals/groups
  • Help 200 households reduce their food bills
  • Publish 50 local, seasonal recipes to promote healthy, low-cost eating

The project began with small pilot initiatives — food bank partnerships, cookery lessons, and community outreach in Burnage through Eat Green UK — but it quickly gained traction. We launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £19,000 to scale the work. Our community responded. In return, we offered meaningful rewards: cookbooks, classes in bread-making and home-brewing, local art, and most importantly — real participation in a project that was reshaping how Manchester fed itself.

What Made Us Different

  • All produce was grown within 50 miles of Manchester
  • Prices were kept low (starting from £3) to ensure affordability
  • We supported alternative growers — often organic in practice, without the costly certification
  • We operated on transparency, trust, and ethical distribution
  • We reinvested surplus into outreach and education

Why It Mattered The Local Veg Box wasn’t just a business. It was a system in miniature — a way of showing that with the right relationships and a little creativity, local food could be accessible, ethical, and community-powered.

Our values were simple:

  • Equity — everyone should have access to nourishing food
  • Sustainability — food systems should regenerate, not deplete
  • Community — the solution lies in local connection, not corporate supply chains
  • Education — people thrive when they learn how to feed themselves well

Legacy The Local Veg Box helped shift how people thought about food access in Manchester. It informed later work on food systems, family resilience, and community health — and became a key part of my journey into cultural regeneration and The Noble’s Path.

The project has since concluded, but the spirit of it lives on in everything I do. If you’re building something similar — or want to — know this:

Good food is a human right. A healthy food system is a community project. And the best place to start is your own street.

— David Schofield Co-Founder, The Local Veg Box CIC