LOCAL food and produce was celebrated in Buckfastleigh on Sunday, raising funds for a community food bank growing project.

The festival at St Luke’s Church showcased food producers who supplied edible goods from raw chocolate and local chutneys to sourdough bread and seaweed mousse.

And the Rev Tom Benson, of St Luke’s, got stuck in, helping create vegetable mosaics for the ongoing Food Forever group project, which is creating a ‘giant vegetable trail’ connecting green spaces in the town.

Sefton Paine, one of the festival organisers, said: ‘We charged a small fee to stallholders, which is going towards the food bank growing project.

‘The project is a group of food bank users and other volunteers who are turning some of the church grounds into a vegetable garden, allowing everyone to have access to fresh and healthy organic veg, not just those who can afford it.’

The food festival is a joint project of The Seed and Food Forever community food groups, in conjunction with St Luke’s Church.

Plans are to hold similar events four times a year, with the next one coming up before Christmas.