Locavore: Fighting For Survival – and a Better Future Economy

Locavore is an award winning social enterprise selling ethically sourced food. Despite its success, it has turned to a Crowdfunder to fight for its survival amidst the current cost of living crisis and rising inflation.

By Devon McCole

Food store and social enterprise Locavore had its humble beginnings in the Southside back in 2011, selling ethically-sourced groceries in a bid to help tackle the pressing climate crisis. Since then the enterprise has opened a number of stores across Scotland. Locavore even runs its own local market gardens where they – and others – grow organically-grown, gourmet vegetables, herbs, & microgreens. They recently were awarded ‘Best Shop’ at the prestigious BBC Food and Farming awards, and last year bagged ‘Social Enterprise of the Year’ at the UK and Scotland Social Enterprise awards. 

Yet despite these apparent successes, last month, the company launched a crowdfunding campaign titled ‘Save Locavore’.  The initial target of £50,000 was met after a week but the fundraiser remains open until 21st December. At the time of writing, over £63,000 had been raised.

The aim of the Crowdfunder is to provide emergency working capital to see them through the rest of the year and early 2023. It was prompted after the community interest company did not receive expected funds through social investment.

We sat down with the founder of Locavore, Reuben Chesters, to find out why they are now in need of aid from the community. Reuben told Greater Govanhill that the £50,000 target was the minimum needed for the enterprise to survive, but that any other donations given will ensure a stronger, more resilient Locavore in the future.

He said: “I think when you reach that initial target it’s very hard to keep asking for more, especially because of the current cost of living crisis we are in, everyone’s in a tough position. It’s heartwarming to see how much support we’ve had.”

Asking for help via the Crowdfunder hasn’t been the only difficult decision made by Locavore. They recently closed their Garnethill Branch to reduce outgoings, ultimately leading to some redundancies.

Reuben said: “With hindsight, we did too much at the wrong time with not enough money. I think that's always the thing – if the ambition is to do something that grows in scales and makes quite big change, then that's risky by its nature and is always gonna have some growing pains.”

“In terms of how Locavore ended up where it is now, is that we’d gone through that initial growth-spurt where we got a lot of investment from Social Investment Scotland (SIS). And then everything opened at the wrong time; there was another mini lockdown because of Covid and then there was the start of the cost-of-living crisis.”

He continued: “I suppose we thought we would get investment from SIS, as we’ve been funded by them before, and we were given some indication that we would also be funded this year. I guess what it boiled down to is that their idea of risk changed, they’re looking ahead at the economy and seeing that we are headed for quite a deep recession.”

This, Reuben said, is the reason Locavore then had to turn to donations from their supporters to see them through, stating it was too late in the day to secure other types of funding immediately. He felt necessary to include this information in the Crowdfunder. Without it people might question why they appeared to do nothing to address the problem for 6-9 months. 

Despite the success of the ongoing Crowdfunder, the road ahead for the Locavore team will be long, tricky and difficult to navigate, with some redundancies still expected, along with reduction in staff hours. 

According to Reuben, all these changes are necessary for the long-term mission to continue – to create an ethical food system for a more sustainable future. Reuben believes this is important to hold onto and said: “When the economy suffers, things that build a better future shouldn’t shrivel and die because of it.”

Locavore had intended to expand and create that change by being present in communities across Scotland so that more people would have the choice to opt out of traditional supermarkets and shop conscientiously. However, they have had to adapt and reconsider.

Reuben said: “The expansion is now on hold, but I think it’s something we still need to do; more locations mean we can really scale our impact and create that market for good producers. It’s all in the idea stage and there will be some growing pains, but an idea we have is community ownership of shops in new locations. Those shops will have access to our support and everything else but at the same time they will have their own autonomy.”

Critics of Locavore have condemned the earlier expansion attempts, arguing that protecting staff during a recession is more important than expanding to more locations. Others have queried why a shop that some find to be unaffordable should be protected when people are struggling to turn on their heating or put food on the table. 

In response Reuben said: “It is fair criticism, but at the end of the day you need to do all these things; you need to provide emergency food aid, but you also need to create a better future food system and a better model of business and eventually we have a better economy. It is a really big thing to say, but if we don’t have a better economy, we end up in an emergency economy all the time. 

“It's like we want a sustainable food system, and we want it local, and we want everyone involved to be paid well, and we want it to be affordable and those are the kinds of pressures that we are under. The bar is so high for us and it’s like a puzzle that doesn’t work at the moment. And those same expectations aren’t placed on your conventional supermarket.

“We are an accredited Living Wage employer, and we are making full use of this 6-month period after the new plan is implemented. Right now, we are struggling to maintain Living Wage employer status, but we are still accredited, and we’d like to keep it that way.”

Amongst the critics there has been a wave of supporters for Locavore during this difficult time. Regular shopper Nancy Lombard said: “Our family has always supported Locavore since they had their first shop round the corner from us on Skirving Street. We love their ethos and their investment within local communities.”

Comments on the Crowdfunder from supporters include:

“I've shopped at many "wholefood shops" over the years in many different countries but there's no other that meets this high standard of quality, ambition and such care about the planet and people. I can't bear to lose it!”

“Locavore is so much part of our week... Just can't imagine living without it. At a time when food prices have soared, eating locally makes so much more sense, ecologically, environmentally and socially”

“I am so glad that we live in a world where Locavore exists... long may this continue and I hope that you get out of this sticky spot and are able to reevaluate your model to become sustainable in this ever changing, complex trading environment.”

People donating to the Crowdfunder can choose rewards ranging from £15 to upwards of £500. They include  eg box deals, organic tote bags, team building days, picking your own flowers and even the chance to spend the night or two on Reuben’s narrowboat. They may continue to offer some of these experiences beyond the Crowdfunder as a way of bringing people closer to their food. 

Locavore has proved there is not only a need but a want for social enterprises that responde to the needs of climate change and biodiversity whilst also creating a more redistributive local economy. The current state of the economy has created a sea of challenges for the enterprise and the path forward will be tough to navigate, but the team behind Locavore are keen to weather the choppy waters and continue with their mission.

Social Investment Scotland were approached for comment but did not respond.