A SHOPPING club set up by food fans wanting to buy organic and source produce locally has not only sprouted into a permanent shop and regular market stalls in the community, but it has established itself firmly in the hearts of its members as a shop they cannot live without.

Customers have put forward True Food Community Co-operative for a Reading Retail Award in recognition of how important the store has become to them. It started as a club in 1999 for people in Reading interested in sourcing good, affordable, organic wholefoods.

Within a couple of years it was stocking a wide selection of organic wholefoods and in 2004 registered formally as a co-operative, eventually opening a shop in Grove Road, Emmer Green, as well as operating as a mobile market stall taking goods into the community. Monica Ashton, who nominated the shop, said: "I can buy unusual foods that are not available in the supermarkets and I can order in anything even more unusual that the shop doesn't normally stock."

There are 500 members who belong to the co-operative with five staff running the shop helped by volunteer members.

Monica added: "The shop is mostly staffed by volunteers and they are people just like myself who you can chat to and they are very helpful and knowledgeable."

Co-operative member Anna Bachelor said the shop and market stalls attract a diverse range of people of all ages and cultures due to its ethical trading as well as the produce they sell. Dry goods are sold loose so customers can turn up with their own containers and buy by weight - cutting back on packaging.

Anna added: "What True Food offers is a viable alternative to the supermarket. We are not trying to make money from people. We are trying to provide a service in the community."

She said of the nomination for Reading Retail Awards: "It's good for the staff members who work hard in the shop to be recognised and that people think that what we do is a good thing. A nice recognition for everyone involved."