Local Food is a £50m programme that will distribute grants to a variety of food-related projects to help make locally grown food accessible and affordable to local communities. Local Food will run from Spring 2008 through to March 2015.

There are 5 themes:

• enable communities to manage land sustainably for growing food locally
• enable communities to build knowledge and understanding and celebrate the cultural diversity of food
• stimulate local economic activity and the development of community enterprises concerned with growing, processing and marketing of local food
• create opportunities for learning and the development of skills through voluntary training and job creation
• promote awareness and understanding of the links between food and healthy lifestyles

Local food will offer three levels of funding

• small grants: £2,000-10,000
• main grants: £10,001-300,000
• beacon grants: £300,001-500,000

Local food programme grant (£50 million) programme details available to view at:

http://www.farmgarden.org.uk/ari/documents/LocalFood_ProgrammeOutline.pdf

For link to frequently asked questions use at:

http://www.farmgarden.org.uk/ari/ari-news/lottery-boost-for-food-&-environment.html