Community food growing report

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The Cobra Collective is excited to launch its report on ‘Visual Storytelling about Community Food Growing‘ in collaboration with The Open University, Reading International Solidarity Centre, Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming. The report emerges from the ‘Grassroots Visual Storytelling about Community Food-Growing’ project which investigated the expansion of community food growing initiatives during the Covid-19 crisis. As part of the project, the Cobra Collective engaged community food growing participants and built their skills in digital visual storytelling … Read More

Radically hopeful cooperation in community food-growing

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In March-April 2022 the course on ‘Visual Storytelling about Community Food-Growing’ held its third and final instalment. Six participants of the cohort made engaging video stories; many more exchanged their experiences in the discussions.  This blog gives an overview of the insights gained, before introducing each story.  The spring 2022 video stories had resonances with many from the first two cohorts of the course, namely: During the Covid-19 pandemic, people were seeking ways to overcome social isolation in ways that … Read More

Evaluating the impact of community food growing initiatives

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Over the last two weeks, and as the digital storytelling about community food growing project comes to an end, we have been visiting case study initiatives to evaluate how community gardens’ activities influence wider collective and sustainable practices and how they could play a transformative role in peoples’ lives.     More specifically, we wanted to understand how these food growing initiatives overcame difficulties or obstacles of the Covid-19 pandemic, how participants developed forms of cooperation while getting to know … Read More

“We feel at home” at the Calthorpe: Community garden volunteers share their experiences

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“We feel at home here” was a common view of community garden volunteers at an event hosted by the Calthorpe Community Garden, central London. This was the September Spotlight Garden of Urban Harvest 2021, organized by the Capital Growth programme. Held on Friday 24th September, the event began by screening short films made by participants in various community-gardens (see our project below). The films stimulated a discussion about volunteers’ experiences, especially getting to know different kinds of people, sharing their skills, … Read More

Digital Storytelling about Community Food Growing Project: First Insights

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Our first engagement process has produced some exciting visual stories, click here to view them. Over the past decade or more, community food growing has attracted more people, inspired cultivation skills and helped to build a sense of place and strengthen relationships. People have shared their knowledge about cultivating and preparing healthy food, thus contributing to a wider food culture. There has been ever-greater evidence that people gain many benefits including emotional well-being, self-confidence, cooperative relationships and mutual learning. In … Read More