Growing Together: Fruitful New Partnership Helping People Back Into Work
A fruitful partnership between Cardiff Farmers Markets and Urban-Vertical CIC has increased the availability of organic fruit and veg at our markets, whilst providing new skills, training and employment opportunities at the same time.
We caught up with Markets Manager Carol Adams, and Urban Vertical CIC founder Amanda Wood to find out more…
Carol: “Ever since Covid, we’ve had some difficulty attracting fruit and veg stalls back to our Cardiff Farmers Markets. Some of the local farms who found a new customer base during that time switched to veg box schemes instead of coming to local markets; this meant that at Roath we’d dropped to just one trader doing fruit and veg, and sometimes there was none at Rhiwbina. We were actively looking at options for how we could fill this gap.
In addition, as we are the lead for the Planet Card scheme, we needed to make sure we had enough fresh fruit and veg to offer the community. Luckily, from our conversations with Pearl at Food Cardiff, we realised that Amanda might be able to help us, in a way which doesn’t conflict with what our existing traders are growing.”.
Amanda: “I used to trade as a sole trader at the market with my microgreens business, but my background before that was in education. This meant that my business soon evolved into a not-for-profit company, and now we teach people about nutrition and how to cook with fresh ingredients, we have an allotment, a café and food surplus market, which we deliver as part of another partnership with Grangetown Nursery School, and a community of incredibly hard-working volunteers.
But it doesn’t end there. A key part of what we now do is help volunteers to gain competency, skills and experience in a work environment. We support people getting back into work or need more experience to show on their CV. For our volunteers that is confidence building, communication skills, working as a team and problem solving. The experience helps to integrate with the community (as well as developing skills like numeracy and cash handling).”
Carol: “Partnering with Amanda has been brilliant – it means that we now have an extra fruit and veg stall at all three markets of our weekend markets. We are sourcing the fruit and vegetables form a wholesaler who is Certified organic by the soil association and we focus our buying on fruit and vegetables that are not grown by our local farmers. In the future, we would also like to buy vegetables directly from farmers.
Amanda: “We are based so close to the city centre, which means if local farms DO want to sell at the market but don’t have capacity to have a stall, they can drop produce off to us during the week, and we can sell it for them. And, we’re also starting to look at dried goods like beans and rice, so we will start having those on the stall too– it will be all about greens and grains! The stall is ever evolving and growing, in line with customer demand and feedback, it’s important we listen and respond to their needs, creating a valuable collaboration between all of us.
Discussing food and nutrition with our customers, has been extremely interesting so far – we are all learning from one another. It’s more than just selling fruit and veg, it’s a social occasion and ideas exchange!”
A few of Amanda’s volunteers have shared their thoughts about being involved with Cardiff Farmers Markets:
“Volunteering at the markets has boosted my self confidence in many ways, it’s a very supportive environment. The camaraderie we have built in our team keeps us all motivated, and we look forward to being at the market, being part of the wider market trader’s community and getting to know all our customers. It’s a very social place to be!
“I have gained respect for the wonderful produce we are working with, we get excited when it arrives on Wednesday, where we carefully sort it for the different markets. I’ve seen lots of new fruit and veg and through engaging with our customers I’ve found out more about recipe ideas, which I’ve tried myself and then passed these onto other customers. People like to talk about food and share recipe ideas – it’s a great way to connect with people.” Jen, Urban-Vertical CIC volunteer.
“I was able to encourage my community members to have a healthier diet by selling healthy and tasty fruit and veg and by being involved in the Planet Card project. I gained a lot of knowledge about ethical eating. We sold organic food and helped explain to customers where it comes from, to promote more ethical and environmentally friendly diets. It’s helped me form a stronger bond with my community by learning about the different lifestyle’s others had and engaging in interesting conversations with them.
Every week is different - from the weather to produce to table arrangements to the people we talk to, making it a very fun, creative, and varied experience. I loved being a part of a vibrant market and interacting with all the traders and customers. Volunteering at the markets gives me something to look forward to in the morning, something to be involved in. It is an experience I will always remember.” Al, Urban-Vertical CIC volunteer.
To find out more about Urban Vertical CIC visit: https://urban-vertical.org.uk
You can catch the Cardiff Farmers markets/Urban-Vertical CIC fruit & veg stall at our Rhiwbina, Roath and Riverside markets every Friday, Saturday and Sunday respectively.