Special Members Meeting

Dear Members

Our September wishes to you!

At our follow up AGM this year, where we reported that the shop was struggling financially, we agreed to report back to our Members at a Special Meeting  to update you on the financial position of Dig-In and our progress in returning the shop to sustainable operations. We have spent the past 5 months working hard at this with much support from staff, volunteers and with much appreciated input from Community Shares Scotland and the Plunkett Foundation. Please see the invite below to the Special Members Meeting – we hope you can make it! 

There are two other exciting developments we would very much appreciate your support on too and one request for Management Committee members. 

Our Rules were agreed way back in 2013, and are very much in need of updating.  Please have a look at the new proposed rules and the information below.

Our team and customers have done a great job in increasing our sales (thank you, supporters!) such that we can proudly report a profit in each of the past 4 months which we hope to sustain, However, the business needs more resilience and improvements including renovating the shop and a new up to date Electronic Point of Sale system to replace our outdated system. To this end we are also seeking your support to raise additional funds through our second Share Issue. Our hope is that this will not only raise much needed capital to allow us to invest in improvements and  face risks going forward with the financial resilience required, but also raise our profile in the community and expand our membership.

We are also looking for volunteers to join our 5 strong Management Committee, in particular those who would be able to contribute financial and HR experience. Please see details below.

You will find  the formal meeting details below, and  more papers will follow.  We hope to have your support  and look forward to meeting you on the 21st of September.

Dig-in Management Committee
Amanda Lake (Chair), Sue Lane, Melanie Main, Will Sohler, Marie-Amelie Viatte

RSVP by letting us know via Email below:

 

Proposed new rules for the Society 

Your approval is needed to update the Dig In governing rules! 
The proposed new Rules are here attached and will be voted on at the Special Members Meeting on 21st September. We really need enough votes to be quorate and allow us to approve so please take the time to vote!  We would very much hope that you can attend and vote in person but if you cannot be there in person, you can email through a proxy vote (to chair@diginbruntsfield.co.uk), by Wednesday 20th September at the latest. It’s as simple as saying: “yes, I would like to approve the proposed new Rules and I give my proxy vote to the chair of the MC at the Special Members Meeting”.
 
‘Why new Rules?’ you might ask. Simply because the current ones (which you can read here) haven’t been updated since 2013 and the Plunkett Foundation (which supports community businesses like Dig In) have advised us to review them. To reassure everyone, this update doesn’t affect any of what Dig In is about; the changes are administrative, sensible, and help to strengthen our overall governance. We don’t expect any of this to be controversial, but need a majority to agree to the change before the new Rules can be formally adopted and registered with the Financial Conduct Authority. The key changes are: 

  • – Quorum for Members’ Meeting reducing to 5% of Members (it’s currently 10% and is hard to attain and cumbersome).
  • – Members’ minimum age increasing to 16 years-old (it’s currently 5 years-old and considered too low in view of the decision-making responsibilities of Members. Note that ‘gifted shares’ can still be purchased for under 16 year-olds.).
  • – Allowing for Management Committee and Members’ Meetings to take place online with the same quorum as if in person.
  • – Entirely new sections: complaint against a Member (3.8), voting at Members’ Meetings (4.16), annual return to FCA (6.14), transfers of engagements (7.6), settlement of disputes (9.12) – all sensible and nothing controversial.
  • – Explicit reference to a Share Withdrawal Policy (here attached).

Our proposed new Rules adopt the template provided by the Plunkett Foundation and we’re grateful to the Plunkett Foundation and Community Shares Scotland for their support in this work. A representative from Community Shares Scotland will be present on 21st September to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you for your support and hope to see you on the 21st or in the shop soon! 

Deliveries – remote payments – changes to opening hours

Deliveries – remote payments – changes to opening hours

We hope you are all well and are grateful for your patience as we have adapted operations in the shop recently.

If you are able to come to the shop, please do, as we have limited capacity for deliveries. If you would like to pre-order and pre-pay for a fruit and veg box to speed up your visit, see here.

Food deliveries

We want to support more self-isolating or vulnerable people in Bruntsfield and nearby communities to get their groceries.

We can supply fresh fruit and veg bags (organic and non-organic options) at different sizes – £8, £16, £24 and add essentials: bread, milk and eggs.

Our volunteers are delivering on Fridays to Bruntsfield and local communities including Morningside, Marchmont, Polwarth, Merchiston, Shandon and Grange. To order a veg bag or a delivery, download our order form and email it to us at orders@diginbruntsfield.co.uk and wait for confirmation.  

Supporters Account 

To make it easier to shop for yourself and others you can get a Dig-In Supporters Account. The card can be topped up by bank transfer, so a volunteer or friend can pay for your shopping or you can pay remotely if you are getting a delivery.

Changes to opening hours 

We are closing the shop while we get deliveries and to clean and re-stock the shelves (often around lunch-time).

Monday – Wednesday: 10am – 6pm 
On these days we also usually close at 1pm for cleaning/lunch
Thursday- Friday: 11.30am – 6pm
Saturday: 11.30am – 5pm
Sunday: closed

Opening hours are subject to change at short notice due to staff and volunteer availability. Keep an eye on the door and our Facebook page for regular updates.

Dig In’s 7th AGM – Hopes for a Better Food Future

Dig In’s 7th AGM – Hopes for a Better Food Future

Open event – all welcome – Monday 10th February 2020 – 6-8pm

Christ Church Centre, 6a Morningside Road, Edinburgh, EH10 4DD

Please join us for our 7th Annual General Meeting of Dig-In Bruntsfield, your local community greengrocer. Come hear how things have gone over the last financial year and plans for the year ahead. We’ll be publishing our draft accounts to all members in advance of the meeting.

We are also delighted to be joined by Sarah-Jane Allsop from Castle Douglas Community Forum who recently took on their own community owned tourist information centre and shop ‘Heart of Galloway’ and are committed to making Castle Douglas a good food town and working closely with food producers and local retailers.

We’ll have the usual snacks and drinks and will finish up the evening with a facilitated group discussion on ‘Hopes for a Better Food Future’ – considering how we engage with COP coming to Scotland and our voice on the ongoing climate emergency. You can read about our volunteer Fiona’s latest vision of our ‘Game Plan for a Good Food Nation’ in our blog.

Register here and receive updates on further details.

Read more

Nourish Conference 2019: Game Plan for a Good Food Nation

Nourish Conference 2019: Game Plan for a Good Food Nation

This year we sent our Shop Manager Morag and Volunteer Fiona to the Nourish Conference 2019. This is Fiona’s take on the event:

Volunteering at Dig In is a happy endeavour.

Greengrocering in a local community owned enterprise supporting local growers and producers serving friendly, interested customers is a delightful ‘location’ to be in our national food system. However, our food consumption and food systems are highly contested, in a state of enormous inequality and environmental dysfunction.

The Nourish Conference 2019 ‘Game Plan For A Good Food Nation’ brought together people from across Scotland and beyond from every nook and cranny of our food chain to share information, debate ideas and plan for a more equitable and sustainable food system in Scotland.

Firstly, it was warm, welcoming, exciting and … Nourishing! It was wonderful to meet with so many (over 120) growers, farmers, suppliers, processors, distributors and campaigners from across our amazing, vital and complex food system.

Secondly, it was an explosion of connections: from air miles to food banks, from equitable working conditions for small growers to national food excess, from sustainable local food production to iniquitous large scale farm food subsidies. A ‘right to eat well and a right to fair and sustainable food system’ was top of everyone’s agenda, as Sue Pritchard one of the key speakers put it “healthy food is everybody’s business”.

Thirdly, it was a call to action! Over the two days we listened, debated and learned from each other about our food systems from people from every nook and cranny of Scotland’s food chain. Importantly we pinned down actions that we promote to create a fairer, healthier food system. From personal actions such as mindful purchasing and community involvement to political demands such as a right to food in Scots Law and food labelling that includes the environmental impact of a product.

It was an inspiring conference which refocused the essential, vital impact a wee community owned shop like Dig In can make promoting a progressive, equitable, sustainable food system.

Find out more about Nourish Scotland.

A word from our young customers

A word from our young customers

This week we’ll be celebrating 5 years since Dig in opened its doors in our beautiful corner of Edinburgh.

We have come a long way during this time, and to help us think about the impact our small shop makes in the community, we asked some of our youngest, most loyal customers what they like about having Dig in nearby:

Milk in glass jars from the Wee Isle Dairy on the Isle of Gigha off the southwest coast of Scotland.

‘I like Dig in because it’s small and it’s the only one of its kind. ‘Cause there are lots of Waitrose and Sainsbury’s, but only one Dig in.’ – aged 7

Dig in community greengrocer in Bruntsfield. Photo by: Lauren McGlynn

 

‘I like the fruit and nut bars’ – aged 4

 

 

 

 

 

‘The fruit doesn’t have as much plastic packaging, and the milk comes in glass!’- aged 7

Memories from an early age

The following conversation from one of our Dig in families shows how influential even small moments around the shop can be:

“I like my pomegranate” was one child’s response to what he likes about Dig in.

Pomegranates? His mum asked, thinking it had been more than a year since she’d bought pomegranates, since they had been away when they were in season this winter.

Amanda’s son went on to say that he likes the people who work in the shop and how many different fruits there are at Dig-In.

On reflection, Amanda realised that he was remembering particularly tasty and beautiful pomegranates that they had found at Dig in nearly 18 months ago.

After all this time, her then 3-year-old held onto this memory for a few reasons –

  • Taste – these pomegranates tasted great, the best Amanda’s ever had.
  • Story – since their family talks a lot about the food they buy and eat, these seasonal red beauties gave them something new to learn. They made time to talk about the vitamins in particularly colourful fruit and veg and how although pomegranates don’t grow well in Scotland, Dig in tries to bring seasonal fruit and veg into the shop from nearby countries like Spain.
  • Beautiful – ‘they looked good, were displayed beautifully and every time we went anywhere after that with pomegranates, he has wanted one!’

In Amanda’s words…

So, I guess the reason we support Dig in is because it has beautiful produce, as local as we can get, which is important to us. It’s also supporting the community we live in and it helps us feed and educate us and our family about the joys of food, food issues and eating well. We go in there to chat as much as to buy, and it makes us feel part of the community – particularly having no family ties ourselves.

It feels good to be buying fresh local produce, supporting the community and hopefully helping solve our huge global issues in a very small local way.

We couldn’t agree more, and we’re so glad you and your family are a part of our community!

Birthday celebrations – this Saturday

Thanks to all our customers for keeping us open here at the heart of Bruntsfield, and come see us on Saturday 27th April to celebrate our 5th Birthday with us!

Farewell Katariina and welcome Steph!

Farewell Katariina and welcome Steph!

Wishing you all the best, Katariina!

This week we said farewell to Katariina, who has been a member of the Dig in team for more than 3 years. She started with us as a volunteer and later joined our staff team as a shop supervisor, primarily running the shop on Saturdays. Katariina brought incredible enthusiasm, warmth and energy to the team over the years, and she will certainly be missed. Thankfully, she’s not going very far!

Katariina has taken a role as a full time member of New Leaf Coop, located in nearby Marchmont, Edinburgh. We wish her all the very best as she takes this next step, and we’ll be round to visit you at New Leaf soon!

New shop supervisor – Steph Marsden

You may have noticed that there’s a new face around the Dig in staff team – we are delighted to welcome Steph Marsden as a new shop supervisor!

Steph comes to us with great experience in food and retail. She completed the MSc Gastronomy course at QMU last year (along with Management Committee member, Robyn) and ran the Leith Food Assembly for 18 months. Steph also works part time running a small craft business and has a website foodplayfood.com

We hope you’ll make Steph feel right at home in her new role with us.

Looking forward to seeing you in the shop soon!

Save the Date – AGM 25th February 2019

Dig In Bruntsfield: Annual General Meeting

Save the Date – Dig In Bruntsfield’s AGM will be held 6-8pm, Monday 25th February 2019, at Christ Church Morningside, 6a Morningside Road, Edinburgh, EH10 4DD.

Following formal business, we’re delighted to be hosting a short talk from Donald Reid, shareholder and Food & Drink Editor for The List who will give us his view on the food and drink industry in Scotland and our role within it.

Register here and receive updates on further details.

Hummus and carrots on a sharing platter

 

Call for Management Committee members

Are you passionate about Dig In’s values and want to support the success of our community-owned greengrocer in Edinburgh? Do you have a few hours each month to volunteer with Dig In?

We’re looking for new members to join the Management Committee this year. Elections will be held at the upcoming AGM on Monday, 25th February.

Please email our Chair, Isla McCulloch, if you are interested or read on for more information.

Publicity and Community Engagement coordinator

One key role we’re looking to fill this year is someone to take forward our publicity and community engagement strategy. This person will have:

  • strong skills and experience using social media to communicate messages and engage customers;
  • interest in working with staff and volunteers to develop and improve the way we engage with the community;
  • a strong commitment to Dig In’s values.

With support from staff and other volunteers, the Publicity and Community Engagement coordinator will have responsibility for:

  • sending 6 newsletters per year to our shareholders (using Mailchimp);
  • regular contribution to our social media platforms (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook);
  • supporting staff and volunteers with community events (e.g. ‘Soup Saturdays’, tasting events – 6-8 per year);
  • attending monthly Management Committee meetings (2hrs per month);
  • participating in the Annual General Meeting (usually held in February).

If you’re interested in this role, please email a statement about yourself and your experience to our Chair by 20th February 2019.

Motions

If you wish to raise any constitutional issues at the AGM, you can raise a motion by sending an email to our Chair, Isla by 20th February 2019.

Dig In vs the Beast Fae the East – The Power of Local

Dig In vs the Beast Fae the East – The Power of Local

We’re just about thawing out after what was an incredibly eventful week in the life of our wee shop.

Tuesday evening, the snow starting drifting in as we gathered for our 5th AGM, reflecting on the successes of last year and catching up with our members, shareholders, volunteers and community built through this wee unassuming grocers. Little did we know that the Beast from the East was on her way, wreaking havoc with our food supply and collective ability to function…. or did it?

Read more

Community, Confidence and Carrots: Dig-In’s 5th AGM

Community, Confidence and Carrots: Dig-In’s 5th AGM

Notice of Annual General Meeting of Bruntsfield Community Greengrocer Limited, and Election of Management Committee Members

You are warmly invited to attend the 5th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Bruntsfield Community Greengrocer (trading as Dig-In) to be held in Christ Church (church centre next to the church) at Holy Corner, Bruntsfield, Edinburgh, arrival at 7pm for 7.15pm start on Tuesday 27th February 2018. 

Please register your interest in the event here so we can cater for appropriate numbers!

The formal AGM proceedings will be preceded by ‘Community Confidence and Carrots’: a talk from Rob Davidson, Manager of the Cyrenians Farm Enterprise from where we source a range of organic salads and vegetables. We’re delighted to be hearing from Rob about how by running a working farm they are also able to sustain a home for a community of young vulnerable people, many with experiences of homelessness.

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WHOLEmeal Saturday – Breakfast, lunch and tea!

 

Thank you to everyone who turned up to our WHOLEmeal Saturday event – a pop-up tasting event with whole meals made by volunteers exclusively with ingredients from Dig-In.

Amanda Lake, Co-convenor of our PACE subgroup and WHOLEmeals galore!

The whole idea was to share recipes and ways you can use

ingredients just from the shop to make a variety of delicious recipes for any time of day.

For breakfast volunteer Frankie had made a delicious overnight oats with almond milk, grated apple and a homemade rhubarb jam on top.

Other scrumptious lunch or tea WHOLEmeals on offer were:

Bulgar wheat, green lentil, lemon and fresh herby salad;

Greencity Wholefoods easy peasy falafels with flatbread, leaves and harissa and crowdie dip

Spinach and cheese pie

Fruity root veg couscous served with fried halloumi

We were handing out recipes on the day but also host them right here on our website….

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