Warwick food co-op launches

**Warwick’s People & Planet society are launching a food co-op which
will start on Campus this week.**

The environmentally-friendly society will run a stall every Tuesday
from 12 until 5pm in the Atrium selling organic and locally sourced
produce.

The launch night on Thursday saw more than 30 people attend, where
members of People & Planet were on hand to provide information. Many
also brought homemade food and drink to share.

People & Planet are a national student network which aims to end world
poverty and raise awareness of environmental issues. The Warwick-based society is non-hierarchical, and wanted to establish a food co-op after the national People & Planet had successfully helped Universities in Sussex, Leeds and York do the same.

Joey Saelens who has been a driving force behind setting up the food
co-op said: “People & Planet gave us great advice on how to get the
co-op running. I attended a workshop because I wanted to bring the
project to Warwick.”

“We want to promote debate to show people there are alternative ways
of sourcing food. We have set up a blog alongside the co-op where
people can discuss organic food and post recipes. For example, there
is a great recipe online at the moment which explains how to use root
vegetables in a stew”.

As well as the blog, the society is planning on running an alternative
library to help promote the co-op. Hannah Wheatley is volunteering
some of her books for loan.

She said: “Anyone is welcome to come and borrow a book at the library
which is based on trust. All they have to do is write down their email
and the date by which they will return it.”

“The co-op is a supposed to foster more of a community around food at
Warwick. It’s not faceless or nameless like Costcutter where most
people don’t know the person who they buy their food from. We want
people to know the origins of their food.”

Nick Swain, president of Warwick’s Students’ Union (SU) agreed that the
University could do more to foster a community around ethically
sourced foods.

He said: “Warwick has a focus on where its food comes from, especially on sourcing fair trade alternatives, for example. More can always be done though and as the University expand food offerings on campus, we as an SU will want to ensure that all options are considered, including having a voice on the decision making bodies.”

He added: “I think the co-op is a brilliant initiative for students by students and it will provide a great new source of fresh produce on campus”

Louis Waterman-Evans is in charge of finance for the co-op and wants
to make sure the food for sale is affordable for all. He said: “We are receiving support from People & Planet initially but are hoping to become totally self-sufficient soon.

“We are completely not for profit and our membership fee is just five pounds. Members can then get any of our food for wholesale price every time they come. However, as we don’t want to exclude non-members, when they attend the co-op they can also buy the food but will be charged an extra five percent on top of the wholesale price.”

Food available for purchase includes fruit and vegetable boxes from an
organic shop in Earlsdon, as well as dried foods such as fruit, oats
and pasta, which are from a co-op in Brighton.