East Oxford Farmers' Market Celebrates BBC 'Top Three' competition spot

28 November 2011

East Oxford Farmers' Market celebrates finalist spot in BBC’s Food and Farming Awards.

Celebrating its 5^th Birthday, the Green Party-initiated East Oxford Farmers’ & Community Market reached the finals of the BBC’s Food and Farming Awards, under Best Food and Market category.

Oxford Green Party spokesperson, Brian Levison said "The Green Party fully supports this fantastic green initiative to bring locally grown food products and non-food products to the community. The East Oxford Farmers' Market has been up and running every Saturday from 10am-1pm since 2006. Run mostly by volunteers, the market really encourages local people to join in. Virtually all of the stallholders live locally, selling products based on family recipes and crafts made from local ingredients".

In 2005, The Market was promised to local communities when the Oxford Green Party created a manifesto commitment during its local election campaign. Duly in 2006 the Green Party set up this market, based out of a local primary school. All products sold at the market would be local (within a 30-mile radius of Oxford), predominantly Soil Association-accredited organic, and would have as little impact on the environment as possible. The market is monitored frequently with inspections and site visits to ensure it is being run effectively. In the six years that the Market has been running, it has grown from 5 to more than 20 stalls strong, and the footfall is currently over 500 in the three hours that it is open.

Mr Levison continued “The BBC awards took place last week and we were one of 3 finalists in our category. Whist we came in second place, the fact that we got this far is testament to how successful this market is. We were nominated by our customers and out of the many similar nominations for other markets, our Market was selected as a finalist because of the level of positive feedback we received. We call upon all local authorities across the country to replicate this successful model - to encourage more people to buy locally and to support small sustainable businesses."

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For more information, please visit http://www.eastoxfordmarket.org.uk/

media enquiries - Brian Levison 01865 791 202

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