IF one of your New Year’s resolutions is to eat more healthily this year, then now is the time to switch to organic fruit and vegetables.

Gerard Maguire who runs the local Riverford organic food franchise, delivers veg boxes to homes in Bournemouth, Poole, Wimborne and Swanage.

The company has scooped several awards over the past few years including Best Retailer in the Observer Awards and Best Organic Retailer at the Natural and Organic Awards in 2013.

Gerard explained: “It is a good way to support your local farmers and our veg boxes are on average 20 per cent cheaper than supermarket organic veg.”

Along with their veg boxes, customers also receive eight seasonal recipes in a newsletter each week to help them use up every last leek.

Just before Christmas, Gerard organised a charity tasting event at Branksome Dene in Poole to promote some of their new products and to raise funds for a good cause.

He said: “We raised £485 for the Philippines tsunami appeal.

“It was also a good opportunity to meet some of our local customers as most people are out when we deliver their food boxes.”

• Company founder Guy Watson started growing organic veg in 1986 on his family farm in Devon and set up the veg box scheme in 1993, delivering to 20 local friends and families.

As demand grew, the challenge was to find a way of embracing it while sticking to what the veg box scheme was all about – local growing and employment and a friendly, personal service.

The solution was to find other farmers who shared the same ethos. There are now four Riverford farms, all growing, packing and delivering around 47,000 veg boxes each week.

This month it has launched an office delivery scheme which contains 50 portions of fruit for £23.95.

Visit riverford.co.uk to find out your nearest distributor or to order a box.