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.

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?

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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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A few minutes with… Katie!

Hi Katie!

Thank you so much again for building our beautiful website, we love it! It’s a fantastic example of how much work at Dig In goes on behind the scenes by a real troop of wonderful volunteers.

So, tell us a wee bit about yourself…

I’m a Digital Marketing Consultant, which means I put things on the Internet, or consult with people about what they should put on the Internet. I’m also an Edinburgh native, born, gone to school and got my degree here!

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Welcoming Spring with Soup Saturday!

Two pots of warm soup with freshly baked bread

Spring seemed to arrive just as we set out the table for the year’s first Soup Saturday!

Many thanks to all our existing customers and supporters for popping by to say hello, to the team who prepared the soup and bread for samples and to our community engagement volunteers spent the morning chatting to passers-by. Read more

This is where it gets messy…

Like most Saturday’s, we are open tomorrow for free soup and a chat so shoppers can come in and learn more about Dig-In. That’s not all we’re doing though.
shopfront

The time has come to roll up our sleeves, get scrubbing and painting, and we need your help! We will be open tomorrow (Saturday 29th March) from 11am-3pm working on giving the downstairs of the shop a little make over. If you want to help, please come along and bring some clothes you don’t mind getting grubby! Read more