I. Commissioned Stories
At The Locavore, we’re always on the lookout for original food stories, told with nuance, care, and varied perspectives. From reported stories to personal essays, we publish narratives that lie at the intersection of food, community, culture, and climate. These can be through text, photographs, videos, and illustrations—depending on the format and medium that works best.
Pitch a Story
To pitch a story, write to content@thelocavore.in with ‘PITCH’ in the subject line. Include your name, a short bio, samples of your published writing, and a short paragraph outlining your story idea. We aim to respond to all pitches, and you can expect to hear from us within two weeks. Here are some of the series we’re currently commissioning for:
Features
Currently, we are keen on publishing stories:
- On regional Indian cuisines, and local and seasonal ingredients that are under-represented in mainstream media. Read Discovering Gular, the Lesser-Known Fig, and Other Lessons About Lost Foods and Tracing the Roots of a Rampur Winter Specialty
- That tie together food, culture, and identity in unique and interesting ways. Read Following Judima in Dima Hasao: A Rice Wine Story and A thousand kilometres from Gaya, I learned to love the taste of its baskarel
- At the intersection of food and climate. Read Can Permaculture Offer Hope in a Climate-insecure World? and A Better Future, Fuelled by Cups of Good Coffee
Thematically, we would like to explore anything that hasn’t been excessively covered elsewhere, or offer our community a new way to see an familiar subject. In terms of voice and tone, we are drawn to narratives that are rooted in a slightly fluid way of storytelling, as opposed to a strictly objective style. We like stories where the presence of the storyteller can be felt. Descriptions, impressions, incidents from along the way, and interesting anecdotes, are all welcome.
TL Champions
To learn to do good through food, we often turn to others for inspiration. The Locavore Champions is our way of gathering stories of people who create meaningful change in the Indian food system.
Market Archives
A visually–driven series, Market Archives aims to document as many markets from around India as possible, small, sprawling, vanishing, noisy, up a hill, tucked away in a corner of the city, every one of them.
Inside My Kitchen
Every kitchen—whether in homes, communities, or neighbourhoods—has a unique story to tell. Attempting to capture some of these stories from across India, Inside My Kitchen is a series that examines the relationship between the kitchen and the people who inhabit it.
Everyday Locavores
‘Everyday Locavores’ is a new short-format, photo-led series that aims to capture lesser known faces whose labour often goes unnoticed, but are integral to how we engage with food. Is there someone—in your cities, towns, or villages—whose story around food you would like to tell? Reach out to us on content@thelocavore.in with a short pitch detailing your idea with ‘PITCH: Everyday Locavores’ in your subject line. You can find previous stories here along with our guidelines for text and images. These stories rest on both Instagram (Read our story on Kavita Devi) and our website.
Note: We’re also open to other ideas that do not fit into these categories, but explore food through a unique lens or format.
Our Editorial Process
At The Locavore, we believe in well-researched, rigorously edited writing, which takes time and effort to develop. Each article goes through multiple rounds of editing. We encourage writers to only pitch if they are open to having their work rigorously edited, with extensive feedback. That being said, we respect our writers’ views and style, and prioritise open communication regarding the same.
The Locavore retains ownership and rights to the content we produce, allowing us to republish and adapt it into different formats.
II. Community Contributions
Apart from commissioned stories, we also have community-driven series where you can share, highlight, or document what is personal to you. From recipes that spotlight a local ingredient, to a hand-me-down that’s been in your family for generations, or simply what’s on your plate, there are many ways you can contribute to The Locavore. While we would love to hear from all our readers, please note that we may not be able to feature all the submissions that come our way. If you’re unsure whether a submission fits into one of our series, feel free to reach out to the respective email address with a short description about your contribution.
Share a Recipe
Our compendium of regional recipes from chefs, home cooks, and culinary experts highlights local, seasonal produce and caters to every kind of cook. If you have a recipe that:
- Preserves culinary heritage
- Archives uncommon traditions, practices, ingredients, and stories
- Showcases local and seasonal ingredients
- Uses native ingredients in a new light…
… we would love to feature it on our website! Reach out to us on content@thelocavore.in with ‘RECIPE’ in the subject line and a short paragraph about the recipe.
Add to Our Repository on Native Ingredients
‘Know Your Desi Ingredients’ (KYDI) is an evolving repository of knowledge about ingredients that are native to the Indian subcontinent and have been adapted into the mainstream culinary narratives of people, places, and cultures.
If you would like to share more information about the ingredients featured here, or any we should look into, write to us at content@thelocavore.in with ‘KYDI’ in the subject line.
Document your Kitchen Hand-Me-Downs
Kitchen hand-me-downs are not just a beautiful way to hold on to family heirlooms, but also a meaningful way to preserve and carry on what is pivotal to our culinary heritage. Whether they take the shape of a worn out cast iron pan, a quaint mortar and pestle, or even a dogeared handwritten cookbook, they connect us to the people that we love and are separated from. Do you have a favourite Kitchen hand-me-down you’d like to contribute? Write to us at content@thelocavore.in with ‘KHMD Submission’ in your subject line, and we’ll get in touch with you. And don’t forget to include why it’s special to you!
Contribute to #OnMyPlate
The Locavore’s #OnMyPlate is a series on Instagram that spotlights India’s diverse culinary heritage and stories. To contribute, you can write to us with the subject line ‘OnMyPlate Submission,’ a description of what’s on your plate, and why it’s meaningful to you, along with high-resolution photographs at connect@thelocavore.in.
Here’s a previous OnMyPlate submission you can refer to.
Audio Archive a Family Recipe
‘A Longing for Home Food’ Project—an offshoot of the curation at the eighth edition of the Serendipity Arts Festival in 2023—is a listening experience cataloguing people’s oral food memories and recipes through conversations that invoke a sense of home. Do you have a family recipe you’d like to showcase? We’d love to record, archive, and share it as part of our project. Reach out to content@thelocavore.in with ‘LONGING FOR HOME’ in the subject line. Include a short description about the recipe, who’ll be participating in the conversation alongside you, and the stories that make it special.
III. Attend a local food meet-up!
The Local Food Club (LFC) is a nation-wide initiative by The Locavore, led by passionate food lovers like you. Each Local Food Club meets once a month—it is a space to make new friends, tell stories, and take action together for a more sustainable future. Whether you want to attend the next meet-up, be a host, offer your venue, or set up a food club at your school, college or workplace—read all about it here!
Become a Member
Join a growing movement of food lovers in your city! Sign up to be part of your Local Food Club—or help bring one to life. All you need is a love for food and a willingness to show up.
Become a Host
Offer your Venue
Have a space that could host 25-30 people once a month? From cafés to bookstores, your venue could be the heart of a local food gathering. Fill this form, and we’ll get in touch.
Kickstart a Local Food Cub
Be a Content Volunteer
From food shots to candid moments, we’re looking for creatives to help us document the magic of LFC meetups. Volunteer to document the people, moments, and memories that make each meetup special through photos and videos. Sign up here and we’ll be in touch!
IV. Send us a tip, feedback, or an idea
Know any producers or organisations in India doing great work through food?
We’re always eager to collaborate with food producers and organisations, who, like us, want to create a positive change in our food system. If you know of any farmers, small-scale entrepreneurs, grassroots-level organisations, or anyone else based in India who has adopted practices of sustainability, transparency, and traditional knowledge to build a better food system, feel free to reach out to us at connect@thelocavore.in. Let’s work together to create meaningful impact.
Send us your feedback
At The Locavore, we’re always looking to expand our ways of thinking. If you would like to give us feedback about our content, or point us to a perspective that you think we haven’t covered yet, please write to us at connect@thelocavore.in. In order for this to be meaningful, we request you to be respectful of our writers, and keep it friendly.
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