A Longer Table

Aim

A zero waste grocery shop in Kirriemuir Town Centre where you can buy food home and personal care items without single use plastic packaging

Tina, Gail, Heather, Eve & James are pleased to welcome you to our project. We all live in or close by the historic little red town of Kirriemuir, Angus. We have all either grown up, worked or have family ties in the town and surrounding area.

Our Aim. To open a zero plastic waste shop in Kirriemuir Town Centre where you can buy and refill the exact amount you need  of loose goods, either in your own or our re-usable containers. The plan is to sell competitively priced food basics, fresh Scottish grown seasonal fruit and veg, and some eco -friendly household and personal care items too.

We all have concerns about the future of our planet and all its inhabitants. Everyone knows, and most folk agree, that humans are having an increasingly negative effect on the environment, and the destruction and pollution we have created is leading to serious climate change. There are many different issues, but one of the main ones is the huge volume of plastic pollution of our land and oceans.

There is now a growing understanding, and desire to address the way we produce package and transport foods and the other items that we expect to be available for us to consume in our daily lives. We think it is our responsibility to try and facilitate change by buying and using more ecologically friendly products, choosing to buy items which are not wrapped in single use plastic and to encourage and  help others to do the same. 

We do not want to wait until governments and large corporations get around to changing laws and keeping promises to reduce carbon footprint by some arbitrary date in the future. As  individuals we can all start to do our bit right away by changing what and how we buy, and how we re-use, recycle and dispose of the things we already have.

The feedback that we have already had from our online questionnaire and talking to many people, is that they think this project will benefit local individuals, the community, the town centre economy and the environment. Most folk are interested in buying goods without single use plastic packaging but find it difficult to access a wide enough range of produce within a reasonable travelling distance. It feels like defeating the purpose to drive a 60 mile round trip, filling the air with diesel fumes to buy a bag of non plastic packaged groceries! Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to do that and there were somewhere on the doorstep where those goods were readily available? We would love to see a  future where every small town had its own zero waste shop selling ethically manufactured and more eco friendly produce.

We have also spoken to many who feel that while they would like to support the project in principle they think that, in general, eco friendly products are expensive compared to their usual shopping and therefore beyond their budget. This needs to change so that eco friendly is no longer a life style choice only available to those who can afford it,  but becomes equally accessible to all.

Hence our name A Longer Table taken from the anonymous quote ''if you have more than you need build a longer table, not a higher fence'' which is  in keeping with our ethos of returning profit to community. We believe passionately that what we have should be shared with others.

We want to create a local shop serving the 7000 plus residents of Kirriemuir and the Glens area of Angus,  so that everyone who wants to can physically access it. By registering as a social enterprise community interest company (CIC) which means profit goes back into further developing the project and not into our personal pockets, we can be competitive in our pricing and make what we sell more affordable. Buying only what you need instead of pre-packaged sizes also saves money and waste.

 Zero Waste Scotland figures show that UK domestic households produce 6.5million tonnes of waste every year. The equivalent of 1 in every 5 bags of food shopping is thrown away every week. The average family could save up to £60 per week by buying only what they need, storing it correctly and using before the 'best by date'

We plan to open for a half day on Sunday and at least one evening per week to be available to those who work out of town during the usual 9-5 retail hours.

We intend to create a 'phone and collect' scheme so that busy people with less time to browse and shop will be able to order, then pop in to pick up their goods ready packed. Anyone who has mobility difficulties could order in the same way and then get a relative, friend or carer to collect for them.

We are also including a social meeting space where anyone can come in, have a seat, a coffee and chat or read and watch the world go by. Profits from the shop will develop this area and a book swap facility.

The meeting space could also be hired by other groups for appropriate eco -friendly pop ups, workshops and meetings. This part of our project is very much an idea in progress and we want to remain flexible about the direction it takes depending on the need indicated by the local community in the future.

We are crowdfunding to get this project up and running by late spring /early summer. The money raised is to cover the initial expenses on premises, shop fitting, equipment and if needed to top up the first stock order.

We have a town centre premises lease provisionally agreed. We have a shop design and a plan to fit it out, mostly using recycled materials from another social enterprise company.

 We are collaborating with other social enterprise companies and other local businesses and artisan makers for materials and some of our stock. 

We are ready to get started as soon as there is enough in the kitty go ahead.

 We have devised rewards so that those who donate gain a benefit back from supporting and using the shop. If you are an 'out of towner', too far away to be likely to visit the shop you can still join in by choosing a reward where part of the donation goes to an environmental  cause such as planting trees.

 We have chosen to carry  out the tree planting through the World Land Trust scheme - this is a reputable international conservation charity with a proven track record since 1989, whose Patrons include Sir David Attenborough, Steve Backshall, Chris Packham and David Gower. WLT works in partnership with other organisations to purchase and manage land in areas of the world which are currently the most biologically significant and threatened. Please read more about this work on their website www.worldlandtrust.org or their face book page @worldlandtrust.

While we were thinking about appropriate rewards for those who want to donate to our Crowdfunder, we decided that as well as supporting the development of our own local project to help the environment it would be a good opportunity to simultaneously give something to help the work going on globally in the areas of the world where land, forest and wild life are most at risk.   

We thank you sincerely for your support

Even if you are unable to donate you can still help us by talking about and raising awareness of our project locally, telling friends, family and colleagues, sharing this Crowdfunder on social media, Face book, Twitter and Instagram, and encouraging others to do the same.

This project successfully funded on 15th March 2020