We are asking for your feedback on recent conversations with regard to a community led food cooperative, a ‘people’s supermarket’ being set up in Dorking. It is an idea floated last year by the Dorking SOS and has been revived in the last month by a series of conversations with Wall To Wall1, a leading UK television production company, who want to make a programme about a town or community, such as Dorking, working together to set up a viable and effective local food co-operative supermarket.
There are several successful farm shops around Dorking, and Surrey Produce was a viable high street business too. Previously, some of our group has discussed the possibility of establishing something similar, maybe in partnership, in the centre of Dorking. Other good examples are the recently established www.sulgravevillageshop.org in Oxfordshire who manage about 1000 local customers, the Goods Shed in Canterbury, or the City Farmer's Market in Hampton Hill where local producers sell together.
At the moment we’re trying to gauge the level of interest in Dorking. Could you let us know
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if you think it sounds like a good idea
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if you think you’d like to be part of a co-operative like this
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if you think you’d like to be part of the development of the project
We have a meeting on Monday 14th April evening if you’d like to come.
We think this is a fantastically exciting opportunity to be part of a food and shopping revolution – we hope you agree!
1 Wall to Wall make programmes for all the major broadcasters, including Who Do You Think You Are?, the series where well-known people trace their family trees, and the drama New Tricks, both for BBC ONE. Other recent Wall to Wall productions have included Crisis At The Castle for BBC FOUR, Empire's Children and Child Genius for Channel 4.