Exeter VegShare food co-op: an exemplary Student Eats enterprise

In their own words:

“We all wanted to learn more about how the local food system works in real life, and find out about the immediate, small steps that us – students as change agents – can take today to make it more sustainable. In addition to this, we expected to expand our comfort zone by setting up commercial projects from scratch, and dealing with the everyday challenges of running an enterprise. Our work has been recognized by the University of Exeter Students’ Guild, who awarded us Student-led Project of the Year.

The project’s Guild-side coordinator, MSc Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture student Margus Menert, received the Highly Commended award under the category of Outstanding Student Staff Member. The excellent merit accrued earned the student leader of this project, Ina Wecken, a final year Biology undergraduate, a place in tightly competitive UNESCO Young Sustainability Leadership Training, as well as nomination for the Guild award of Outstanding Individual Contribution. The experiences gained have served as a perfect professional introduction to the food sustainability sector, and we have been approached by the Exeter Food Network for jointly putting together an Exeter food hub development strategy. Successful funding of this community food security project, as well as proactive replication of the model elsewhere, can potentially create employment for Exeter VegShare’s project members.”