The paper aims to investigate factors responsible for the resilience2 and long term survival of short, local food supply networks formed in mountain areas characterised by low population density, remote location and underdeveloped infrastructure. A case study of an alternative food network established with participation of local government and umbrella institutions, individual food producers and distributors and financial aid provided by policy measures provides an input for evaluation of long term success factors of such community based enterprise. Small scale, alternative to the main stream local production and distribution systems such as farm shops, farmers’ markets, direct delivery and mail order schemes, and other non‐commodity solutions have developed throughout the last decade of the 20th century. The next stage of such development that ensures survival, temporal and spatial resilience seems to lie in formation and evolution of community based networks that facilitate utilisation of social capital, its skills and knowledge