Darlington is taking part in two pioneering projects to highlight the importance of local food.

It is one of only two North-East towns selected for the national Making Local Food Work programme, led by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and funded by the Big Lottery.

Darlington Farmers' Market is also one of the first to benefit from a £100,000 three year campaign to attract more customers and stalls.

The CPRE project highlights the health benefits of good, locally produced food, and its importance in providing a thriving local economy and jobs.

Darlington was chosen because of its size and the surrounding strong farming sector which produces high quality livestock, food and produce.

Nick White, North-East regional co-ordinator, said: "The programme aims to reconnect people and land through local food by increasing access to fresh, healthy, local food with clear, traceable origins."

Local volunteers will be recruited to help map the food web - the links of people who buy, sell, produce and supply food - in and around the town.

The project classes local food as that whose main ingredients are grown or produced within 30 miles of where it was bought.

It includes fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and milk and lightly processed products such as cheese, sausages, pies and baked goods.

The first food web was mapped in 1998 to show the harmful impact a proposed superstore would have on Saxmundham, a small market town in East Suffolk.

It showed how local producers, wholesalers and food outlets depended upon, and supported, each other and supported jobs in many other businesses, including plumbers and electricians.

Local shops gave people access to good, affordable food, places to meet and strong community ties.

By offering farmers a local market, their grazing livestock benefited nationally important, wildlife rich nature reserves and river valleys.

In contrast, where local food webs had broken down small shops, post offices and other businesses had closed and supermarkets, with mostly national and imported goods, taken over.

Anyone interested in joining the Darlington project - whether a shopper, consumer, producer, retailer or in the hospitality business - is invited to an explanatory meeting at the village hall in Piercebridge, near Darlington, on Tuesday, at 7pm. Places can be booked with Mr White on 01748 831912. Email: nickw@cpre.org.uk Meanwhile, Darlington Farmers' Market is one of the first to receive help from North East England Farmers' Markets (NEEFM) of which it is a founding member.

NEEFM aims to help attract more customers and wider variety of stalls to the markets.

It has received almost £100,000 from the Big Lottery and almost £9,000 from the North East England Investment Centre to support, organise and promote the markets over three years. The first to benefit include Darlington, Hartlepool and Durham.