Who are East Anglia Food Link?
East Anglia Food Link is an NGO (non-Governmental organisation), that is, a not-for-profit organisation working for the common good. Our funding comes mostly from charitable sources plus some from government sources. We do not receive funding from commercial organisations. We have a membership, consisting mainly of individuals plus a small number of businesses; but we do not work to further the interest of those members, rather they have joined us because they believe in our work.
EAFL was established in 1997. We characterise our history in terms of three phases:
- For the first 5 years we focussed mainly on developing organic production, with a particular focus on encouraging and supporting small organic vegetable growers. This culminated in our helping to establish Eostre Organics, an organic greengrocery wholesaler which is a co-operative owned by its grower members.
- For the next 5 years we focussed mainly on mid-scale commercial supply chains, including extensive work on brokering regional supplies of meat and vegetables for local education authorities. Other work of this kind included attempts to broker supplies of local food into independent retail (especially village shops), multiple retail, farm shops etc.
- For the reasons outlined above under local food, we are now de-emphasising that work while continuing to pursue particular projects eg supply chains into the London wholesale markets. Our focus is shifting more towards those markets where consumers are willing actively to support the development of resilient supply chains, as in the case of community supported agriculture.
A listing of the members of our Board will follow soon.
Our key staff are listed on the contact page.