Straight Out Of Dartford

RAWGANIC - A NEW WAY TO SHOP

STRAIGHT OUT OF DARTFORD

BY SHANNON RANDALL

I think it is safe to say that ecofriendly ways of living are on the rise recently which is brilliant considering how long we really have left to save the planet (reports vary from saying we have 18 months to 25 years - whatever the correct figure may be, it isn’t looking pretty). So, that is why in today’s piece I am choosing to focus on the new Dartford Highstreet store, ‘Rawganic’ opened by the owner of eco-friendly hair salon, ‘Raw’, Kim Goodger.

If you are looking to cut down on your plastic waste from food, then Rawganic is the place for you. Raw has a zero waste dispensary for products like pasta, beans and even cleaning products.

As well as this, they bring in a variety of foods from other small local businesses that they try to also sell on with zero waste. Kim loves to partner up with other small businesses and says she is “always on the lookout for new partnerships.”

If you’ve never been to a package free food store before, the idea is to bring your own reusable packaging to store all the food you pick up whilst in there. Bring some tupperware or a netted bag or even just a reusable sainsburys bag and go crazy. Another option -and my favourite- is the oat milk dispenser. Bring in a glass bottle or grab one in-store if you have yet to get one and fill up on all the oat milk you could possibly want.

To give people a better idea of what products Rawganic sells, I asked Kim what the best sellers have been so far. “Our most popular products at the moment are the local honey sourced from Ditton in Maidstone, our organic eggs from Fairseat Farm and our cheese selection from various parts of Kent. I honestly thought the zero waste dispensary would be the most popular but it’s taking a little more to get people involved.”

When asking Kim about why she decided to open Rawganic, she said, “first and foremost I’m passionate about the planet and being as sustainable as possible as well as nutrition and knowing where my food has come from. My existing business [hair Salon, Raw] has become more and more sustainable over the last 3 years and we have made some major changes in how we operate in order to be more eco-friendly. Secondly…not being able to work for almost 10 months of 2020/2021 took its toll on me and my family. I was a single parent and living with my sister who suddenly became a widow at the start of lockdown also with a child. So I thought I needed to do something in order to be able to work if another lockdown occurred. What better business to start than a food business?”

With plastic bags taking around 1020 years to decompose and plastic bottles taking up to 450 years, plastic waste is a massive contributor to climate destruction. Who can blame consumers for buying plastic when it is literally in or around every single food product they buy? Well, with shops like Rawganic, that excuse can no longer hold. “Our shop is super important for the Dartford community as there isn’t anything like it around and it’s giving the locals an opportunity to reduce their plastic and food waste by only buying what they need and reusing their packaging. From a nutritional point of view it’s encouraging people to shop organic, know where their food has come from and reduce our carbon footprint.”

So, pop down to Rawganic this week and do your part to support local businesses and to save the planet!

Instagram: rawganickent Address: 4 Market Pl, Dartford DA1 1EX