FROME’S Food Assembly didn’t pause for breath last month as it held the biggest recorded assembly in the UK just ten days after starring in the BBC’s Countryfile.
The organisation, which connects local shoppers and food producers, more than doubled its membership following the TV appearance and has set and broken a national record for orders in just a fortnight.
Organiser Pia McGee said, “Within an hour of appearing on Countryfile we had doubled our number of members and by sale close on Monday night we had the biggest Food Assembly sale on record in the UK.”
The group’s membership rocketed from around 800 to over 1,900 members, and last Wednesday 25th November saw over 130 orders collected – even more than the record-breaking week before. The food assembly has now moved the weekly collections to the Steiner Academy’s main hall on Park Road, to accommodate the increase in members.
Lindsay Downes, who also organises the weekly collections continued, “We were expecting a gentler week following the event after Countryfile was aired, but last week we broke the record again with over 130 orders. That’s equivalent to 3% of Frome households ordering their groceries from local producers via the Food Assembly!”
The assembly celebrated its first birthday at this week’s collection with sampling and cake.
Pia likens the Food Assembly to a ‘click and collect farmer’s market’; it is part of a national network of organisations which connect shoppers with local producers. Almost all food sold in Frome comes from farms or producers less than 25 miles away.
Members order their food online and receive it at a weekly collection event.
To find out more about Frome Food Assembly go to www.thefoodassembly.com/en/assemblies/164
