Kay Johnson is the director of the Larder, a co-operative that promotes healthy, seasonal and sustainable food in Preston.
The co-op provides accredited catering and employability courses for refugees, the unemployed and people on probation, and it also works with the local community organisations to provide cooking classes in more deprived neighbourhoods. In February 2019, the Larder opened a cafe in the centre Preston.
What do you do?
I co-ordinate the Larder activities, connecting with what’s happening at a grassroots level with what’s happening nationally around food and sustainability.
What is the point of the project?
Our strapline is food fairness for all.
We are trying to create a situation where people, regardless of income, have access to good food and an understanding about where it comes from, to promote healthy and sustainable food messages that take affordability into consideration.
Come in to the Larder today for our home made Pea&Mint soup and locally sourced sour dough bread. Available with a delicious local cream! pic.twitter.com/pxMZpe6ufj
— The Larder (@LarderLancs) July 17, 2019
When was the moment you decided to do this?
It was a build up and an amalgamation of all of my experiences of food. I was brought up on a farm, became a chef, trained as a nutritionist and became part of the sustainable food movement nationally. Eventually we had a sustainable food charter for Lancashire in 2014.
I held an event in Preston where the idea of a food hub came up, then I spent the last five years working out what that would look like. We had this idea for an education element, a cafe to hook people in and then the procurement side, which has developed over time. It’s emerged organically from that moment.
What’s been your proudest moment so far?
The café launch in February. People came from all over. There are times when I feel completely on my own, but this felt like I had hit the nail on the head, I had got it right and it was the right thing to be doing, because these people were supporting me.
An exciting Saturday painting and decorating @LarderLancs, a new worker-owned cooperative in Preston which plans to buy local produce, train new staff and teach the value of cooperation #prestonmodel #communitywealth pic.twitter.com/u2z3mPsmip
— Far Nearer (@far_nearer) January 19, 2019
What’s been hardest?
Pushing against the grain. It feels like a battle all the time. I’m trying to create a demand for good food by encouraging people to change their food buying and eating behaviour. I’ve taken on a huge challenge and sometimes it feels too big.
What drives you when it gets hard?
Definitely the volunteers and the people I have around me that surprise me every single day. I get phone calls from people saying, ‘I love what you’re doing, can I come and help?”
I get to the point where I think I’ve been too ambitious and wondering what I am doing and someone will pop into the cafe and say, “What can I do, this is amazing!”
What’s the next step?
The food academy is the next step. John Bridge, a Preston architect, drew up some plans for the basement. We want to turn it into a food academy and dining space to do more of the work training refugees, people who have been in prison and people with additional learning needs who might not have the confidence to attend a larger educational establishment.
This helps us to expand that and look more professional. It’s designed to give people that learning experience and the work experience in the cafe. The plan is now to get funding.
What funding have you received?
We received £247,000 from the National Lottery in March 2018, this funds my salary and paid for someone to help us set up as a co-operative. It also pays for the co-founders’ salaries. But the project has become more ambitious over the last year so it’s not going very far!
“We don’t need medication, we need this”: more from me on the #prestonmodel at @LarderLancs, a food co-operative providing direct access to healthy produce to residents affected by food poverty https://t.co/vcZ7hGDO5t
— Hazel Sheffield (@hazelsheffield) April 14, 2019
How will the outcome of Brexit affect what you do?
I think it will make our work even more important because food prices are likely to shoot up which will force even more people into food poverty. There doesn’t appear to be a contingency plan set up to address the problem that’s about to emerge and I wonder if people on low incomes are being considered as just collateral damage.
Food banks can’t cope and they aren’t an effective long term solution anyway.
What would you say to someone looking to do something similar?
If it’s just an idea, have events where you get people together to decide what the problems are and establish ways to resolve them. You need to invite other people to join you and bounce ideas off each other. It doesn’t have to cost anything.
Four hundred people came to my first event. I invited the press there and the mayor, and promoted it on social media. Loads of people offered support and wanted to get involved. I even got support from Peter Rankin, Preston council leader, who came and said he couldn’t give us any money, but he would support us.
What does community mean to you?
Community is people coming together around a common agenda or a common theme, whether they are in the same place or thinking the same things. People with the same vision. There’s community here now.
