The Taste of the Town Company
is an experiment in the re-generation of a modern rural community.
In the past people from the
farms and villages brought their produce into the Market
Town and returned to their farms with their purchases and
news of local events and gossip. The market was a meeting
place and the heart of an isolated community. Life in the
countryside is changing rapidly. People have become disconnected
from the landscape and from each other. Their economic and
social ties are fragmenting. Market towns have lost their
economic and social significance and the countryside is perceived
as little more than the hinterland of urban conurbations.
The Taste of the Town Co.
reconnects town and hinterland in ways that make sense. It
uses Information Technology to create a permanent market
place in which individuals with a range of business and organisational
local connections with food, but who do not necessarily recognise
each other or their shared interests, can make their presence
and particular interests known. The site wires every one
together but the interactions that spark are not predictable.
The sense of community is strengthened by the creation of
real time opportunities for members to meet together. The
Co. builds on the local food connection to stage an exhibition
demonstrating the economic and social ties between the town
and its environs.
The Company was formed in
1999. It's a not for profit company managed by local volunteers.
It presently has 50 members
and matched funding from the Market Towns Initiative to extend
the membership to 250 in 18 months.
The aims are:
• to
create a platform for individuals to promote local connections
with
food and drink for the benefit of people who live and work
in the vicinity of Market Drayton and it's environs;
• to
work in partnerships with mutual interests;
• to
extend this approach to other localities.
Objectives
• Promote
a distinctive local identity linking the town to its rural
environs.
• Develop
real partnership between the local community, business
and public
sector agencies based on local food connections.
• Create
jobs, business opportunities and increase wealth and incomes
in
the local economy.
• Create
opportunities for the improvement of local social, welfare,
education and
health provision.
• Encourage
sustainable agriculture and food distribution practices.
• Develop
healthy food choices.
• Develop
local food quality and distinctiveness
Main activities
• Developing,
promoting and maintaining a www.foodconnection.co.uk web
site providing information knowledge and understanding about
other members interests and creating opportunities for collective
action, support and innovation.
• Providing
real time opportunities for members to showcase their activities
to the local community and to network with each other and
re-enforce the identity with the virtual community.
• To
develop local visitor attractions associated with local
food connections
and to add value to existing ones.
• To
provide local and virtual outlets for the promotion of
related activities
and the retail of goods and services, under the collective
identity of the Tate of the Town Co.
Market Drayton has no access
to European funding the border for Leader plus stops short
at the town, we are not in a Rural Regeneration Zone. The
Taste of the Town Co. has therefore sought financial support
from the locality. Grants and sponsorships have come from
Market Towns Initiative, Advantage West Midlands, Market
Drayton Town Council, North Shropshire District Council,
Awards for All, Mullers, Palethorpes, the Nat. West Bank,
Yes Consultancy, Micron2, Blore Heath Farm and in kind support,
from it's members and consultants. The Company is now moving
from the conceptual phase to operating as a business. The
volunteer time, although willingly given is not the basis
for the growth of the project. We seek sponsorship for the
clusters, for the Company and need more members.
