A COMMUNITY farm in Chagford has already raised more than a quarter of its fundraising total in just over a week, to help expand the enterprise.

Sylvan and Davon Friend of Chagfarm have launched an eight week crowdfunding campaign seeking to raise £15,000 for more farming equipment and facilities to expand the goats' milk dairy and ensure the continued resilience of the food supply.

In little over a week, the campaign has already raised over £3,600. If they successfully raise £15,000, they will be able to build a milking parlour for the goats, construct a cheese cave to enable production of Chagfarm's own uniquely flavoured cheese, carry out essential repair work on the farm roofs, and invest in solar panels which will provide electricity to the farm, which is currently without mains electricity.

Sylvan Friend, founder of Chagfarm, said: 'We're really excited about our Crowdfunder campaign and hope that our exclusive foodie-based rewards and farming experiences will tempt people beyond our local community to support a low-impact, high-welfare food production.

'We've got a tough second year ahead of us and the £15,000, if reached, will certainly help us to expand and continue to demonstrate that fantastic local food for local people is both affordable and sustainable.

'We believe that the way we produce and consume food needs to drastically change for the better and if we can reach out to other like-minded people via Crowdfunder, then we're one step closer to self-sufficiency.

'We've already had lots of amazing support in the first week and a half but really need your help to keep on target.

'It we don't achieve our target of £15,000 by March 28 we won't be getting a penny of the money pledged so far.'

Chagfarm aims to make the local community's food supply more resilient by working closely with Chagfood, another local food enterprise, and complementing their existing vegetable subscription offer.

Chagfarm does this by offering local goat dairy products and honey, as well as high-welfare goat meat, pork, woodland poultry, lamb, beef, venison and game.

After successfully achieving its first year targets of turning over £12,000, the team are now on a mission to show their business model is financially viable by recruiting an additional 25 members by April.

To find out more about the scheme, visit http://www.chagfarm.org">www.chagfarm.org