We are pleased to announce that after working on this for over a year Wellington Community Food is now fully set up as a Community Benefit Society. We held our first meeting as a Society last week and we are excited that things are starting to come together in a more formal way. This puts us in a great position to bring the project forward, open a bank account, access potential funding and make the most of other opportunities as they arise.
A Community Benefit Society is a legal structure which ensures that Wellington Community Food is rooted in the town and wider area. The Financial Conduct Authority, with which we are registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, says that the “conduct of a community benefit society’s business must be entirely for the benefit of the community”. Anyone will be able to become a member through a small annual subscription and we will operate under a ‘one member, one vote’ principle.
At the meeting a Board of Directors was elected from the Founder Members. The Board is accountable to the membership through the Annual General Meeting.
Chair of the Board, Adam Lockyear, said: “Formally incorporating Wellington Community Food is an exciting step forward in realising our objective of establishing a community farm for the town.”
We also joined the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) network to connect with other farms and support our formation.
The membership structure of the Society will soon be finalized. Once this is in place we will be putting out a call for members, so watch this space!