Oldham Council and Manchester Metropolitan University will host a 3-day interregional learning event that considers how European regions can create a vibrant and sustainable food economy through cooperation. Visitors will be introduced to some examples of best practice from the Greater Manchester city-region, including tours of local food and drink businesses.
Guests will hear presentations from representatives of local and national organisations promoting cooperative ways of working, including the Co-op Group, Co-operative Councils’ Innovation Network, the Sustainable Food Cities Network, the Business Growth Hub and Northern Roots in Oldham. They will also hear from local enterprises with innovative business models, including:
- Altrincham market – a recently revived food, drink and craft market hall with an impressive range of local producers and traders;
- Open Kitchen – a catering community interest company that intercepts food before it is wasted and turns it into food for events;
- 8th Day café – a long established cooperative café in the heart of Manchester that has cooperation and fairness within the food system central to its values;
- Hatch – a novel pop-up retail, food and drink space housed in temporary and semi-permanent containers.
In addition to site visits and presentations, the event will provide space for partnering regions to discuss progress on the development of their action plans in order to put learning from the Food Chains 4EU project into practice!
