Virtual Farmers Market

The procurement, build and commissioning of a Virtual Farmers Market for safe and sustainable locally produced food supplied to the rural community in a novel, 24/7 way. Replacing the farmers market facility, lost to Covid 19, which provided a service to the community and a valuable revenue stream to local food producers.

This project uses modern technology and state of the art vending machines housed in a cabin to provide a direct conduit between local food producers and the local community. It provides an 'open-all-hours' solution which meets the protocols of social distancing and, with minimal intervention, provides a clean and safe environment for retailing a number of small to large foodstuffs including, but not exclusively, fresh and frozen meats, seasonal vegetables, cheese and dairy produce.

As a business model it is conceived as being replicable throughout the UK and therefore successful proving of this concept will lead to further project opportunities.

Following publicity from the start of the project we have had demand from ten additional farmers/producers to join in the VFM. Further a customer/community survey was undertaken which revealed a much greater demand for produce than we anticipated. Therefore this extension to the project addresses two critical areas of impact:
Firstly, expanding the number of products available and the service facilities provided and, secondly, increasing the number of local producers from eleven to a minimum of twenty one.