Streetfood: Opportunities for Regions

Context/background of the projectThe instigators of the SFOFR partnership were motivated to come together to development an Erasmus + Strategic Partnership to enable integrated action among entrepreneurship VET providers and wider economic development stakeholders to deliver high quality and support which enables street food entrepreneurs to grow professionally and contribute more fully to regional economic development. The street food sector is growing fast: with thousands of new street food businesses emerging every year in the UK alone with partners witnessing rising demand for support from young entrepreneurs. The UK government strategy Food 2030 establishes the need for “new enterprises to enter the market stimulating diversity and competition.” Yet, for all its dynamism, the street food sector is becoming more crowded and ambitious young entrepreneurs are already looking upwards and outwards for further growth opportunities. Emerging street food entrepreneurs tend to be young, first time business owners and although they have developed useful skills in branding and digital marketing, they are often self-taught and lack formal enterprise education to deal with a sometimes precarious mobile model. However, their learning comes from application, and that have the opportunity to grow quickly because, “cutting their teeth in street food allows them to trial their concept, build up a following and put together a rock-solid case for investment.” (Elite Business Magazine.) While Street Food is still a very recent phenomenon and while it is now on the radar of some VET providers and economic development stakeholders, they are largely unaware of the sector’s full potential for growth. Partners were very aware that training provision needed to include viable paths to expansion such as moving to fixed premises, launching brands for retail to franchising By growing this way, street food entrepreneurs will be able to create more resilient small businesses, moving away from the, increasing turnover and employment while keeping their brand of authenticity and contributing to regional development. And it is that regional development that the SFOFR wanted to focus on. Unless food entrepreneurs work in a region conducive to innovation and strategic food marketing, their efforts will be thwarted. OBJECTIVE The key project objective is:- “to enable integrated action among entrepreneurship VET providers and wider economic development stakeholders to deliver high quality and support which enables street food entrepreneurs to grow professionally and contribute more fully to regional economic development. SFOFR project was carefully structured to find new ways of enabling integrated action among entrepreneurship VET providers and wider economic development stakeholders to deliver high quality and support which enables street food entrepreneurs to grow professionally and contribute more fully to regional economic development. PARTNERSHIPThe SFOFR partnership consists of six organizations from UK, Northern Ireland/UK, Ireland, Germany and Netherlands. Project partners have strong cross-sector reach and connectivity to the street food development sector, VET organizations, economic development agencies, agri food industry champions and an eLearning specialist drawn from profit, non-profit and public sectors spanning operational right through to policy levels. These connections were important to support the development and sustainability of IO 2 SFOFR Regional Alliances in each country and the future exploitation of the SFOFR project as a whole. MAIN ACTIVITIESa) Engaged 50- 75 high level stakeholder organizations in 5 Regional Alliances. Together we studied the evolution of the street food phenomenon, devised and implemented 5 Regional Action Plans to boost the growth of innovative food entrepreneurs and their contribution to economic development and tourism at regional level. b) Publish a “Street Food: Opportunities for Regions” Toolkit to facilitate the replication of Regional Alliances of this nature across Europe.c) Created a Street Food Success: What’s Next? a course curriculum and learning materials to help street food entrepreneurs grow their businesses successfullyd) Trialed and published the course, and engaged in dissemination activities and events to facilitate its inclusion in mainstream VET provision.RESULTS719 downloads of Toolkits in just over a year is a serious impact (surpassing the target of 580 downloads)22 Regional Alliances meetings were held across 5 regions with a total of 186 attendees in developing Action PlansStreet Food Success: What’s next ? Course Curriculum , first of its kind training course in the EU and even the world - classroom course zip file downloaded 386 times16,518 visitors (68% of site visitors of 24,292) accessed the intellectual outputs pages 6Multiplier events attracted 272 stakeholders - important dissemination exploitation platforms.