In a bid to give households access to high quality products without needing to scour busy supermarkets, Foodens Foundation have launched an online marketplace allowing local businesses to sell food boxes within their own communities, whilst adhering with the strict guidelines of social distancing.

In response to the Coronavirus pandemic, and after seeing the enormous strain UK supermarkets are being put under, the Foodens Foundation has launched online marketplace Foodens.

The initiative aims to help local food suppliers list and sell boxes of goods, which are subsequently collected or delivered with zero-contact, adhering to the rules of social distancing put in place by the British Government. Alongside supplying Britons with their favourite local produce and supporting independent businesses, Foodens also hopes to reduce the stress on British supermarkets by cutting down on the number of long queues and levels of high demand for such items as flour, bread and eggs.

Providing they work in accordance with the Food Standards regulations, all food businesses are welcome to register with the marketplace and sell their goods directly to local consumers. These include - but are not limited to - farm shops, butchers, patisseries, fruit & veg wholesalers, ready-meal companies and restaurants.

Retailers won’t be charged any fees for listing their products, just a 10% commission on any orders taken. This covers the cost of card payment fees and operational costs, with any remaining profits reinvested into the online marketplace or used to support other food initiatives. 

The online marketplace, while born in response to COVID-19, has been the brainchild of Rob Kerry and his wife Anna, since their move to Somerset from London in 2017. Finding themselves surrounded by many local farms with high quality produce, it soon became clear many didn’t have farm shops to allow people to purchase from, and were only occasionally being represented at local farmer’s markets. A deep passion for buying local, and uncertainty surrounding the origins of produce purchased from supermarket chains, led to the inception of Foodens.

Any companies wanting to sign up to the online marketplace to sell their goods locally can create an account by via www.Foodens.com/en-GB/signup.

Rob Kerry, co-founder of Foodens, commented on the launch:

“We’re incredibly excited to be launching Foodens – an idea that we’ve had for some time, but has never been more important. We’ve all seen images, or experienced first-hand, how much supermarkets are struggling to fill their shelves, and we feel it’s important to help keep local, independent businesses afloat during this uncertain time. 

“We truly believe that people should be purchasing local; some of the finest produce is available within our communities and we are hoping that this will highlight the unrivalled produce that our communities have to offer. Likewise, we hope that this will help to stop the panic buying and mass gatherings at supermarkets. Our current food infrastructure is fragile and we’ve become so reliant on a small number of brands, but we now have an opportunity to support our community and learn more about where our food comes from.”