Supporting community food growing has become an important mechanism for delivering our mission to empower communities. Community food growing promotes community cohesion, contributes to health and wellbeing, sustains biodiversity, reduces carbon emissions and enhances food sovereignty.
Our recent work has involved supporting Incredible Edible’s ‘Right to Grow’ campaign in the UK, and we have joined forces with community food growing groups in Reading, Spelthorne, Runnymede, Lambeth and Southwark, as well as with The Open University, to put together a series of campaign videos.
In Runnymede, we have collaborated with the Englefield Green Team, Friends of Hythe Park and the Englefield Green Community Hub. Our aim of this first campaign video was to encourage Runnymede Borough Council to enhance residents’ opportunities for food growing and rewilding on public land so as to address the escalating cost of living, climate change and biodiversity crises.
As a result of many months of constructive engagement by community members and the support of councillors, Runnymede Borough Council adopted a motion in support of community food growing on the 25th of April 2024.
The motion commits Runnymede Borough Council to:
- Produce a map of all council owned land and buildings suitable for community cultivation;
- Seek grants in order to support local Community Food Growing Coordinators and to provide utilities and materials;
- Include support for community food growing within its policies where practicable;
- Integrate community food growing in citizen panel deliberations to explore the role communities, the council and other stakeholders (such as businesses) can play in order to encourage community food growing.
The video serves as a digital record to remind councillors and council officers of the needs and aspirations of the community and to make food growing an integral part of community life in Runnymede. In Runnymede, we have collaborated with the Englefield Green Team, Friends of Hythe Park and the Englefield Green Community Hub. Our aim of this first campaign video was to encourage Runnymede Borough Council to enhance residents’ opportunities for food growing and rewilding on public land so as to address the escalating cost of living, climate change and biodiversity crises.
As a result of many months of constructive engagement by community members and the support of councillors, Runnymede Borough Council adopted a motion in support of community food growing on the 25th of April 2024.
The motion commits Runnymede Borough Council to:
Produce a map of all council owned land and buildings suitable for community cultivation; Seek grants in order to support local Community Food Growing Coordinators and to provide utilities and materials; Include support for community food growing within its policies where practicable; Integrate community food growing in citizen panel deliberations to explore the role communities, the council and other stakeholders (such as businesses) can play in order to encourage community food growing. The video serves as a digital record to remind councillors and council officers of the needs and aspirations of the community and to make food growing an integral part of community life in Runnymede.
