Limerick Community Grocery: Connecting up Producers & Consumers

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Limerick Community Grocery: Connecting up Producers & Consumers

Its taken a long time for new routes to market for farmers and growers to develop in Ireland, but the Limerick Community Grocery hopes to be the start of something new. Member owned and operated, it is the first of what may be the next generation of outlets that put the civic back into the shopping experience.

Bill Kelly and a few others set up their unassuming spot on the Ballysimon road, in the old Esso garage, last Autumn.(See its fab new facelift in the pic above!)

Bill's Box at LCG

“We invited the Mondragon coops from Spain to Limerick in 2011” Bill tells me. “We also spent a week out there in the Basque region with them. They put us in touch with coops in the US and UK. A lot of them started out simply as buying clubs, where 5-6 started buying produce together”

He continues “we deal primarily in local produce, organic and non-organic. Its ordered on line up to 10 pm on a Wednesday night, picked on a Thursday, delivered Thursday evening or Friday morning, and then available for pick up and also for sale on Friday.”

Lisa's Box at LCG

In the Limerick Community Grocery, neat pre-made boxes await the customers each Friday. Others come in just to shop, while some both shop and pick up their pre orders.

“Our co-op colleagues in the US, UK and Europe have been extremely helpful, they have built up sustainable businesses over 20 and 30 years” he adds.

The membership growth rate is fast for the Limerick Community Grocery. “four or five join each week” Bill points out.

Recently, Saturday has been added too, as has a wider range of products again.

Organic Grower & LCG supplier Jim Cronin

As often is the case with these sorts of initiatives, organic producers are strongly represented. Both Jim Cronin and John Millane, organic growers from Clare, supply the Limerick Community Grocery. Cloughjordan wood fired bakery brings in their award winning breads, while local conventional veg is available from two suppliers also.

When I visited, Lisa Kennedy, an intern who works on Jim Cronin's farm, was there to met the customers. “orders are growing week on week” she enthused “its a very good sign for the co-op and for us”

Áine Nic Cháirthaigh is one of the regulars. “I joined a few months ago, I love the fact that its around. We have organic and more price sensitive produce, but I love having the organic produce available. I'm really interested in the fact that its a new way of shopping, that the members own it, and can make decisions about where their food is coming from. They know that they are getting good quality food, its keeping employment in the local area, and building up the local economy. It's a great bunch of people really”

As well as being an organic grower, Jim Cronin teaches horticulture courses at his farm near Bridgetown in Kilaloe. “Every year there is something of a general theme, a motif, something that the growers attending the course have really honed in on. This year, a lot of them are very concerned about the multiples.”

One of Jim Cronin's Workhouses

Certainly the power expressed by the multiples over the horticulture sector last Christmas was noted. Maybe the Limerick Community Grocery is the start of another way for cities to engage positively with the growers around them.

“We should be talking to the IFA” Bill says pointedly, in a way that sounds like he intends to do so soon. “Having a grocery store that is owned by the community, retaining wealth in the community, and providing wholesome food at affordable prices. That's what we're about”

Moreover, they are ambitious with their plans and vision. “We're about providing ownership and participation to everyone. This is a practical expression on the high street of what we want to do. Ordinary individuals can become involved and have ownership. Ideally we'd like to see Limerick branded as a cooperative city. Today retail, tomorrow engineering, thereafter banking.”

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