The Community Carrot is more than just a grocers in Dunbar, it is community owned, a place for people to connect in the heart of Dunbar’s high street, and has helped launch a number of great food initiatives.
Website: https://communitycarrot.scot/ or visit their facebook page
What is the Community Carrot?
The Community Carrot (or Crunchy Carrot as it is locally known) is a whole foods gem, a re-fillery, a community hub, a beacon of sustainability, a local employer, a local produce purchaser, a cooking tips and recipe exchange, a green campaigner, blog writer and a provider of the simple basics for a weekly shop. If you haven’t ever visited it, do – you won’t be disappointed!
It is also community owned, with more than 600 members of the Dunbar community purchasing shares in 2019 to save it from closure, supported by the Plunkett Foundation.
Principles
The most important principle for the Community Carrot is to source as much as possible locally, and you can often find surplus apples from peoples’ gardens, locally grown veg from community gardens and farms, and pies fresh from a local oven.
Avoiding waste is also important to the team, and items can be bought according to the amount customers want, either singly or in bulk, even going as far as the option to buy half melons or to pick out as much coriander as you need for your meal.
Community Carrot works really hard to keep its’ prices fair for both customers and for suppliers, and staff are paid The Real Living Wage. The treatment of all people: staff, customers and suppliers are clearly central to the ethos of the Community Carrot, where conversations linger and connections are forged.
Where items are sourced from
Where it can, the Community Carrot sources its produce from local, ethical and small scale produce, championing hyper local and seasonal fruit and veg (including gluts from people’s gardens, and produce from local community gardens and the local Community Farm). Take a look on its website to see where some of the produce comes from.
Where it can’t source locally, produce comes from a weekly Glasgow market and the retailer avoids buying from multi-nationals, instead taking time to look into ethical suppliers such as SUMA.
Any key learnings
Over the years the Community Carrot has learnt that using the term ‘organic’ tends to put some consumers off, as they can associate this with ‘expensive’. Instead, produce is labelled as ‘spray free’ which customers readily identify with and which helps the retailer remain accessible to more in the community.
Any challenges and how these have been addressed
The Community Carrot is not short on ambition, and having time available is an ongoing challenge, particularly for the administrative side of things; along with having time to pro-actively source other local suppliers.
The period of Covid was particularly challenging, but the Community Carrot was able to show its flexibility by offering a delivery service which although no longer maintained due to time and costs, has helped build further community trust and connection.
Being competitive against big supermarkets remains an ongoing challenge although the retailer has addressed this by not trying to compete but instead offer something different, offering the types and qualities of food that wouldn’t be easily found in a supermarket along with some key stables which are not too expensive ensuring that the shop remains accessible and affordable for the community.
Other services
Over the years the Community Carrot has done a lot of outreach through its’ development officer:
- Teaching children about food and cooking, including KidsFoodJourney an after school course to encourage curiosity in new foods and Cook Club in Dunbar Primary School
- Setting up Sunny Soups designed to tackle food waste with volunteers from the community doing weekly cooking using surplus fruit and veg from the shop and other local retailers, farms and gardens, with soups being stocked in a community freezer for anyone to take for free.
- Setting up Sunny’s Kitchen as a weekly community meal for anyone to help cook and / or eat. Surplus produce from Fareshare along with produce from the local Ridge community garden is used to help supply the weekly meals.
Why The Community Carrot is successful: what makes it work well
There is always the temptation to grow bigger, but those at the Community Carrot recognise that they are a High Street shop and want to do what they do well (which they do!). This amazing initiative is right at the heart of the community, and as such is cherished. Taking time to connect with people, making it a welcoming space and a personal service from staff who are well informed and can advise on the different foods and recipes has been a huge contributing factor to its success. In addition to which its commitment to remaining affordable, adapting to the needs of the customers and stocking great quality, nutritious, local sustainable food has given it a brilliant and well deserved reputation locally.
