Target reached!
We made it! There's obviously a huge appetite for good, people-powered local food i...
Support Cultivate Online
Oxfordshire
Aim
Help us scale up Cultivate Online and bring more sustainable, local, people-powered food to communities in and around Oxford.
Support us in the next stage of development of Cultivate Online, our new online shop. Help us grow our online shop and bring more delicious, people-powered food to more people in and around Oxford!
Our vision
In Oxford, like many other cities, less than 1% of our food currently comes directly from local producers. Cultivate Oxford is a community-owned social enterprise that’s working to change this by finding new ways to supply people in and around Oxford with local food. We want 10% of all Oxford’s food to come from local sources because it’ll mean a fresher, healthier, fairer, and more sustainable food supply. It will also keep more money circulating in our local economy. It’s a vision that can work in Oxford, and a model we want to help spread to other cities too.
Introducing the VegVan and Cultivate Online
In the summer of 2012 Cultivate launched the VegVan - our mobile greengrocers delivering delicious produce from over 30 fantastic local suppliers to stops around Oxford. The VegVan has become an iconic presence on the streets of Oxford, and we’ve pumped well over £100,000 back into the local economy.
However, the VegVan alone can never meet the demand for local food, so in late 2014 we opened the virtual doors of Cultivate Online, our new online shop. Through the VegVan and Cultivate Online we’re now delivering local produce to people in 19 neighbourhoods and reaching more customers than ever before.
Cultivate Online's virtual shelves, and some of our favourite produce pics
Our plan
The Cultivate Online shop is much loved and growing steadily, but if we want to achieve our vision of 10% of Oxford’s food coming from local producers, we’re going to need help scaling it up more rapidly. We’ve got everything in place to make Cultivate Online a viable – and replicable – model, but as a small social enterprise, we just don’t have the working capital we need to scale it up. We’ve come a long way since 2012, and we know there’s both a need and demand for what Cultivate is doing – so we’re asking for your help to raise the cash needed to make it a reality.
We're hoping to raise £20,000 through this Crowdfunder, and we’re bringing in business development expertise and support to help us fine-tune our model, grow our customer base and develop a sustainable community-run business.
How you can help
If you believe in our vision of a vibrant local food economy that’s fuelled by people power, then please support our Crowdfunder by making a pledge today. And of course, don’t forget to use the Cultivate Online shop to get your weekly fruit & veg, meat, dairy, freshly-baked bread and much more!
Our rewards
Our thanks to these wonderful Cutlivate supporters for donating some great rewards - to find out more about any of them, just click on their logo to be magically transported to their website...
Want to know more about Cultivate Oxford?
Cultivate Oxford launched in 2011 as a not-for-profit community-owned business, to grow and sell food, and raise awareness of sustainable food and agriculture. We have over 400 members, provide a route to market for over 30 local producers through our retail operations, and are producing more than ever on our 10 acre farm just outside Oxford.
- Visit the website: www.cultivateoxford.org
- Visit Cultivate Online, open Monday to Wednesday: http://shop.cultivateoxford.org
- Find us on Facebook, Twitter and see our pics on Flickr
- See us on the BBC’s recent ‘Glorious Gardens From Above’, or check out our other films on our youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/cultivateoxford
- And if you have any questions, email us at [email protected]
Thank you!
The Cultivate Team
This project successfully funded on 10th May 2015