You Dig it, we Dig it so who are we… ? Valley Fest Director, Luke Hasell and myself Rachele Snowden, Crocodile pr – together we came up with the idea of creating a sharing and marketing platform for local businesses in the Chew Valley.
And what is Dig the Valley? Essentially it’s a community website and newsletter – we are planning on sharing listings and publicising news from across the Valley, providing a valuable resource for those of us who live, work or travel to the Chew & Yeo Valley region. We will regularly be sharing details of what to do, where to shop and how to enjoy this beautiful area.
For the moment we are focusing on the shops and food outlets that are open and serving our community during Covid 19. We are providing this free as a resource to support local residents, farmers and the food industry. If you are local, open for business and you would like to be included please get in touch. We hope this space can also support businesses that have had to close, as and when they are permitted to re-open.
Our success depends on our local community. We need your stories and we would like you to join us. As life returns to a new normal – on a monthly basis we would like the community to nominate a ‘good seed,’ – It can be a shop, cafe, restaurant, attraction, an event or even an individual and we will feature them in the newsletter the following month and help to promote them or just say ‘thank you.’ on behalf of our community. If you have stories to share please email info@digthevalley.co.uk.
In the long-term we hope to cover our costs and use this as a platform to run joint marketing projects for local business. For our launch year we are offering three months free to help support everyone through lockdown. After that we will discuss with our community partners what is accessible/affordable and offer basic or business listings on an annual basis, plus free listings for our local schools.
It is our intention that a significant % of any revenue raised will go to our nominated charity. Our current charity is ‘The Bristol Food Union.’ If you are able please make a donation here to this cause. The team is currently working very hard to feed the homeless and vulnerable families in our area, as well as provide meals for nhs staff and key workers.
We will be adding new elements to the site as we grow to include; events, artists, local business, homes & more. The hope is that as things move forward; we will continue to utilise and nurture our neighbourhood, support each other and all those key workers who have helped us during this time.