Rural shops throughout England are being urged to sell more locally produced food by Making Local Food Work, a five year, lottery funded programme.

The Look for Local scheme is inviting rural, local shops, including those that are community-owned, to sign-up for free, to a dedicated shop advisor, branded point of sale material and training workshops worth up to £1000, to improve their local food offering and to get connected with more local producers. Many shops already on the scheme have increased their food sales by up to 20 per cent.Nicole Hamilton, Project Manager for the scheme says: “Through Look for Local we want to increase availability and demand of local food, by promoting it to local shops in villages and rural areas.