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7/30/2019 SLAF Lessons Learned Report
1/12
Somerset Land & Food
Key Findings & Lessons Learned
October 2009 - October 2012
7/30/2019 SLAF Lessons Learned Report
2/12
Contents
Project Background
The Somerset Land & Food Project has been a three year access to land project,
launched in 2009 and funded by the Big Lottery Local Food Programme. It wasmanaged by Somerset Community Food, a grassroots charity founded in 2004,which aims to re-connect people with the social, health and environmental effects of
growing, buying, preparing and eating local food.
The project involved four paid staff members
Linda Hull (full time), Hannah May (part time from October 2009-2011), Nicole Vosper
(part time from October 2011-2012) and Finance Ofcer Angela Durbacz, supportedby a group of trustees.
Acknowledgements
Staff from the Somerset Land and Food Project would like to acknowledge with
thanks the advice and inspiration of Allan Cavill of the National Society of Allotmentsand Leisure Gardens, the mapping expertise of Mark Thurstain-Goodwin and team at
Geofutures and the ongoing support of Somerset Community Food Trustees:
Kim Robinson, Kath Wilson, Peter Millar, Susanna Damann and Sue Chant.
Last but not least, thanks must go to Sarah and Paul Sander-Jackson for winning the
nancial support of the Big Lotterys Local Food Programme.
1
Executive Summary 2
Key Achievements 3
Key Learning Points 3
Bringing more land into Community Food Production 4
Land Mapping 4
Surveying Provision & Gauging Demand 5
Supporting Access to Land 6
Sharing Skills for Food Production 7
Network Building 8
Recommendations 9
Creating a Lasting Legacy 10
Case Studies
Access to Land Roadshow 5
Get Growing Support Fund 6
Incredible Edible Somerset Open Gardens 7
Local Conferences 8
Contact Details 11
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Executive SummaryBack in early 2009 when Somerset Community Food was
considering how to continue its mission to support community
food projects, there was a Grow Your Own revolution
sweeping the nation. Record numbers of people were
registering on waiting lists for allotments up and down thecountry and it seemed there was just not enough land to go
round. Local consultation with a range of partners including
many of the countys new Transition Initiatives indicated that
access to more land was an important requirement to progresscommunity led responses to the impacts of climate change andto enable reduced dependence on fossil fuels.
Somerset Land and Food was therefore devised to investigate
this phenomenon in our own county and to facilitate further
access to land for community growing, where possible. The
project set out to negotiate with landowners and enable newgrowers to learn skills and exchange existing skills with others
in the emerging network. Face to face gatherings were planned
twice a year to bring like-minded people together with a view to
creating a partnership that would go on beyond 2012.
During the course of the project, approximately 10 hectares(24 acres) of new land has been brought into production
right across the county most often by individuals joining forces,
forming new associations and approaching local landowners
directly with offers of nancial return in exchange for a patch of
land to grow on. The National Society of Allotments and LeisureGardens has spearheaded this.
The Land and Food Project has supported many of these
groups by offering them resources to buy training, tools,
fencing, sheds, polytunnels, compost and seeds to help them
get growing successfully as quickly as possible.
Our conferences have been staged in every district in the
county as have our Access to Land public meetings, whichhave provided opportunities for people to meet, get to know
each other, exchanging knowledge, skills and experience about
nding land and starting to grow food, sometimes for the rsttime. A brand new Open Gardens Scheme, launched in 2012,
saw pioneering projects open their doors to curious gardeners
from all over Somerset.
The delivery of this project has not been without its
challenges. Such a pioneering and complex project requires
sufcient people to share a clear vision of what the aims and
objectives are and what the real need is that the activity of the
project is trying to meet. It started just as the recession and
cuts were hitting home here in Somerset disrupting and
dismantling many organisations active on community andsustainable development issues. This meant that strategicallies were hard to come by. Additionally, meaningful
engagement with our intended target audience also proved
difcult to achieve. Was this because the urgency of access to
land was not so great, or the notion of increased access to land
was actually more theoretical than real, or was it simply that thecapacity of these groups was too stretched for them to be more
involved?
The answer is probably a mix of all three. Luckily, the project
and staff were exible enough to allow a certain re-shaping
to respond to the actual needs identied by the groups who didengage. Another challenge, internal to Somerset Community
Food, was that a key trustee, who developed and championedthe project within the organisation, was unable to stay involved
for personal reasons. This effectively meant that other trustees
had to pick up the reins of a project which they had not beeninstrumental in creating. In terms of governance of the project
this also had a knock on effect on the clarity and quality
Somerton Allotments Association celebrating their success in accessing land
2
of shared vision, which added to the absence of other strategic
partners.
Despite this, the role of trustees, or members of a project
management group, must not be underestimated when it comes
to the governance structure necessary to adequately deal
with the nancial management and reporting requirements of a
Big Lottery grant. Without the backing of an establishedorganisation and trustees with the requisite skills and expertise,
which Somerset Community Food in this case provided, such
a big and complex project would have been more than
project staff could have managed alone. That is to say that
functions such as payroll, HR and nancial management, overand above simple book keeping, are absolutely essential to thesmooth and legally compliant delivery of such a project.
On balance, much has been achieved by the project in
locating and quantifying community growing space and
demand for land as expressed by waiting lists. This mappinghas made the patchwork of allotments, community gardensand orchards, therapeutic horticulture projects and the like
much more visible and connected than they were previously.
Access to land remains an important issue, which must not be
forgotten especially as the Government has recently announced
1500 squares miles of land must be built on to full the housingneed in this country.
Like gardeners who prepare the soil, the Somerset Land and
Food project has created rich conditions for growth for the
community food networks in Somerset.As no other
organisation in Somerset works on mapping access to land,development of skill-sharing networks and events or offering
basic training, we can now build on the groundwork we have
laid with staff time and resources to support the cross pollination
between actors such as land owners, individuals on allotment
waiting lists, community projects and charities. In this way, all
our contacts will continue to benet from membership of
the emerging Incredible Edible Somerset social network.
One of the key messages repeated time and again from peopleon the ground is that its not just about growing food far and
away the most important aspect for many people ofgrowing together is the social aspect: the new friends made,
the sharing of top tips at the water butt or the fun had at seed
swaps and harvest shows. What people are really growing is
a sense of community, pride in their own efforts at doing battle
with the weather and the slugs and a real sense of achievement
and satisfaction at being able to include something home grownat nearly every meal.
The community food network is alive and kicking in
Somerset and deserves more recognition and support to
widen its reach and deepen its inuence in spreading the
message that its good for the health, good for the bank balanceand good for the soul to grow some part of your daily food. Turn
to ourrecommendations and join us in their implementation!
Linda Hull
Project Co-ordinator, December 2012
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Key AchievementsMapping and evidencing need
* Surveyed over 300 parish councils to produce the countys
rst digital, publicly accessible map of allotments andcommunity food growing spaces at foodmapper.org.uk
* Plotted and quantied the amount of land available for
community growing and identied the demand for land hotspots
in Somerset
Capacit y building and skill sharing
* Supported 17 groups, bringing more than 10 hectares of new
allotments and community gardens into production, to get
established by granting them a total of more than 24,000 to
buy training, tools, sheds, fencing, compost, soil and seeds
beneting over 1200 people
* Enabled over 1000 people to share skills on how to cook,
grow, harvest and process food, how to access land, buy land,
set up therapeutic horticulture projects and manage
smallholdings
* Ran a series of 5 roving workshops to bring together
landowners, parish councillors and those seeking land to hear
from panellists recent local experience in accessing new land
* Staged the rst ever Incredible Edible Somerset OpenGardens Scheme involving 9 workshops at 11 different growing
spaces visited by 135 people
Network development and knowledge t ransf er
* Staged over 40 events including six network conferences
involving over 1200 people and more than 400 organisations
and community groups
* Developed a database of over 1000 contacts regularly sending
them the Somerset Local food Update with land and food news
including training and volunteering opportunities
* Designed innovative social networking capability at
incredible-edible-somerset.ning.com
Diggers Field in Langport, was the rst half hectare of new land to be brought into community food production in 2010
* Some districts have much more community growing space
than others. Taunton Deane Borough Council is unique in
the county having developed an Allotment Strategy
requiring developers to make community growing spaceavailable as part of Section 106 agreements and Community
Infrastructure Levies.
* Parish councils have a statutory duty to provide allotments.
They report that would-be allotmenteers can underestimate
the time, energy and skills needed to grow food effectively
and drop out rates can be high.
* Councils prefer instead to manage waiting lists by reducing
the size of allotment plots by half or thirds when they come up
for re-letting. This makes smaller plots available to new growers
but effectively reduces the amount of land available toindividuals to grow food.
* There are opportunities for landowners to lease land for
nancial return but they want to see clear local leadership and
evidence of need before making offers of land.
* Getting the right t between what a landowner needs and
wants and what the community needs and wants can be a
long drawn out process. By contrast, a willing landowner and awell-organised group can make fast headway and a bare eld
can be transformed into a highly productive space in a matter ofmonths.
* Small private landowners and housing associations seem
most willing to make land available for community based
growing.
* People on waiting lists who really want to grow food will be
satised more quickly in their search for a plot when they take
matters into their own hands, create independent and
autonomous self managed associations and organise together
to approach willing landowners directly. Strong local
co-ordination and, in some cases, sustained lobbying, is
the key to accessing land.
* Challenges faced by people seeking land include objections
from neighbours, competition from developers and overcoming
landowners misconceptions that they will lose control of whathappens on their land.
* There is a missing generation of growers and huge oppor-
tunities exist for increasing access to training in how to grow
food. As Somerset is a big, rural and sparsely populated county,
learning opportunities need to be widespread, location basedand nancially affordable.
* Opportunities are not restricted to courses & events - skills
are exchanged continuously and learning from others, for
example at allotments or community gardens can be one of the
best ways to learn.
Key Learning Points* Approximately 108 hectares (266 acres) of land available forcommunity growing in Somerset, mainly in the form of
allotments.
* Approximately 1100 people are on waiting lists. The hotspots
include Taunton, Wells, Cotford St Luke, Wellington, Chard and
Burnham. These are sizeable in some places such as but ourresearch with parish councils has shown that numbers on lists
are not, in themselves, the most robust indicator of proactive
demand for land.
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Foodmapper statistics:
* 205 hectares of land havenow been plotted
* 175 growing spaces
mapped, most of them
allotment sites,
but including 7 community
orchards.* 57 community groups listed
with contact details, 80 landowners - many town and parish
councils and local food initiatives including 21 local producers,
23 country and
farmers markets, 7 food co-ops, 7 community gardens
* 200 registered users
Land MappingA rst step for the project was to survey and map current accessto land and demand. Working with Geofutures, Bath based
GIS specialists as well as a partnership of interested parties
including South West Food and Drink, the Regional Food andHealth Team from SW Dept of Health, Western Somerset Local
Action for Rural Communities and West Somerset Living Well
Programme, Foodmapperwas born - a unique online map ofcommunity based food production in Somerset.
Foodmapper gathers previously scattered and lacking data
on allotment provision, evidencing the need for more access
to land. This online database visually displays the locations in
Somerset where waiting lists exist and where there is no accessto community growing space. This enables groups searching for
land, and new stakeholders of all sorts, to use comparative data
to prove the need, and lobby for, the creation of new growing
space. These gaps in provision, which may also indicate skill
decient areas, have now been quantied.
The map is also a directory of community growing
spaces and our mapping of community food projects, which
welcome new members and volunteers, enables those on wait-
ing lists to nd and get involved in projects immediately, helping
them to develop useful transferable skills for when they moveonto their own plots. Foodmapper has also given 150+ growing
spaces an online presence where many may have had none
before.
Foodmapper plots details of who uses and owns the land
(where known), including contact details for the relevantcommunity group plus data about number and size of plots, land
use, topography, boundaries, availability of water,storage facilities and more. The result is a unique, publicly
accessible digital map of all the allotments and many
community gardens, community orchards, market gardens,
therapeutic horticulture projects and food-related initiatives inthe county.
Bringing more land intoCommunity Food Production
* Mapping began by plotting the growing spaces in the10
market towns with the wards of highest deprivation.
* Full audit now complete after surveying 300 parish councils.
* Mapping was undertaken district-by-district in advance of localpublic meetings.
* Volunteers were supported to map their areas.
* New projects are continuously being added as they are foundout about.
Key Learning Points about Foodmapping
Strengths:
* Accurate data now exists about allotment provision in
Somerset.
* Foodmapper has made the network of projects visible and
connected in a way not previously available.
* This map will endure as a tangible product of the projectsresearch.
* Records are accessible to the public.
Weaknesses:
* Finding volunteers with skills and time to map their local areas
consistently & systematically.* Limitations of the website.
* Records are only accessible to people on the internet.
Looking at this map, where the dark green circle is Bristols food footprint, it can be seen that half of Somerset is needed to feed the city.
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A full audit of provision wascompleted in 2012, after liasing withmore than 300 parish councils.Consistent data was needed to
present to landowners. Results of
the survey showed that there are
approximately 108 hectares (266
acres) of land available for
This detailed data has been used
to raise awareness of demand
for land across the county during
negotiations with landowners,
providing evidence that there
are opportunities for
landowners to lease land for
growing in particular areas.
This data, when matched with
population densities, can beused to calculate how much
land *should* be available for a
particular settlement according to
standards devised by thecommunity growing in Somerset, mainly in the form of
allotments. Approximately 1100 peopleare on waiting lists
and latent demand suggests this number should be doubled to
reect people who dont appear on waiting lists, either because
they dont know how to register or feel lists are too long tobother. Waiting list numbers ebb and ow. The table below gives
a snapshot of demand in 2012.
District,
population and territory
Amount of
allotments
Total
waiting
list
South Somerset (pop 158,000,
area 95,906 ha)
40 hectares 277
Taunton Deane (pop 112,682,
area 46,250 ha)
26 hectares 400
Sedgemoor (pop 116,524, area
60,587 ha)
22 hectares 127
Mendip (pop 110,000 area
73,943 ha)
12 hectares 250
West Somerset (pop 35,000,
area 74,705 ha)
8 hectares 61
SurveyingProvision &Gauging Demand
National Society of Allotments and Leisure Gardens. In this way,community groups can use this research to evidence and
strengthen their bids for access to new growing space.
Key Learning Points about Allot ments
* Waiting list numbers are not, in themselves, the most robustindicator of actual, proactive demand for land.
* While it is the single statutory duty of a parish council to
provide allotments, their willingness to get involved in provisioncan vary greatly:
- Some say their lists are not accurate e.g. people have
moved away, lost interest and so forth.- Parish clerks have observed that many would-be
allotmenteers underestimate the time, energy and skills
needed to grow food effectively and that drop out rates can
be high. This can be especially true on new sites where many of
the plot holders are new to growing and access to skilled advice
is lacking.- Some councils are therefore reluctant to rush to extend
provision fearing they will be left with the nancial and
maintenance burden of untended plots.
Case St udy: Access t o Land RoadshowSomerset is a vast rural county and
with 1.5 staff, engaging with peopleacross all 5 districts has been a
challenge. The roadshow was designed
therefore to go to where the people are
and go beyond generalist marketing.
Working district-by-district on a month-by-month basis from January to May
2012 our roadshow enabled us:
* To launch very targeted grassroots
marketing in one district at a time,including local papers, parishbulletins, radio and more as well as
poster campaigns in towns & villages
and targeted invitations
* The results of the completed
allotment survey for that particulardistrict were presented, giving a clear,
evidenced picture of demand for
land.
Ways forward for councils:* Many prefer to manage waiting l ists by
reducing the size of allotment plots by half or
thirds when they come up for re-letting. Thisstrategy has the effect of making more,
smaller, plots available, which can be useful
for new growers who can build their skills and
experience on a manageable area, but
inevitably works to reduce the total amount
of land available to be cultivated by
individuals in a particular location.
Ways forward for people looking for land:
* Waiting for the powers that be to make land
available may not lead to quick access togrowing space for those on waiting lists. Where
parish councils do not take the lead in fullling
their statutory obligations to provide allotments,
and/or create barriers, people on waiting
lists will be satised more quickly in their
search for a plot when they take matters
into their own hands and organise together
to lobby the council or approach willing
landowners directly.
* Strong local co-ordination and, in some
cases, sustained lobbying, is the key toaccessing land.
* Get support- The National Society of
Allotments and Leisure Gardens and the
Federation of City Farms & CommunityGardens are recognised as trusted agencies
that exist to respond to proactive enquiries.
* Each evening hosted main
speakers Linda Hull and Allan Cavill,from the National Society of
Allotment and Leisure Gardens, as
well as a panel of people who had
been there and done it - local groups
who had started allotments,community gardens and more. This
enabled an exchange of information,
inspiration and advice. A panel style
question & answer session supported
this skill sharing.
* Information stands with fact sheets &
resources complimented the
evenings.
* Post event press-coverage also
meant more opportunities forlandowners & seekers to become
engaged.
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Support ing Access t o LandOne of the desired outcomes of the Somerset Land & Food
Project was to negotiate with land holders for 100 hectares
in total of additional land for cultivation in close proximity to
10 market towns to be used for community gardens, marketgardens, allotments, smallholdings or Community Supported
Agriculture Projects for the use of local food groups by 2012.
Having mapped Somersets allotment provision, totalling 108hectares, it was clear that 100 hectares as a target was anextremely ambitious one. However it can be reported that
through the life of the Somerset Land & Food Project, 7.5
hectares of new allotment space has been created as well as
2.4 hectares of community gardens. These sites include:
* 12 brand new allotmentson private land where there
was no existing allotment
provision
* Two new additional allotment
sites, one on private land and
one on housing association
land where there were waitinglists on existing sites
* Seven new community gardens on church, town council,
school and housing association land in areas with waiting lists
*One new council owned statutory site and one new extensionto a statutory site to replace one lost to development.
E merging Pat t erns:
* Many of the new allotments have been established using the
South West Model devised by Allan Cavill, SW
Representative of the National Society of Allotments andLeisure Gardens, who advocates that new sites are most
quickly established by independent and autonomous groups,
often formed from those on waiting lists, who then carry outtheir own land search and complete their own agreements with
the landowner rather than expecting their parish council to
create new statutory sites i.e. protected by AllotmentLegislation.
* The bulk of new sites formed in this way are therefore
private and temporary, which means they must be run in
such a way that the land can be returned to the landowner inthe same condition as when originally let, following due notice
being served.
Negot iat ing wit h Landowners
During the 3 years of the project, conversations have been
initiated about access to land with a wide range of landowners
including councils, housing associations, large public trusts,farmers unions, national park authorities and more. Numerous
events have been staged where landowners have attended to
nd out more about the demand for land and the benets to
them of releasing it for community use.
The evolution of these conversations into actual release of landhas been inuenced by a range of factors including:
* The nature, extent and location of demand for land
* The onset of the recession and cuts to services
* Changes in the political landscape and organisationalrestructuring in many sectors
However, the most important factor continues to be the need
for robust demand to be demonstrated and championed
local to where land is potentially available.
Landowners have wanted to see clear local leadership and
evidence of need before making offers of land.
Key Learning Points
* On balance, small private landowners seem more ready to
lease land to well organised community groups who proactivelyapproach them.
* In urban areas the issue of much land being in options
agreements with developers poses another barrier for some
land seekers. Taunton Deane Borough Council has developed
an Allotments Strategy including policy to require developersto make community growing space available as part of Section
106 agreements and Community Infrastructure Levies on new
build housing.
* In West Somerset, the ownership of much land by big, privateestates can also mitigate against nding suitable land.
Knowing who to contact in the hierarchy is useful for taking
the next steps.
* Potentially available land leased by Housing Associations
depends on assessing and stimulating the level of interestof residents, whom they naturally prefer to offer land to rst, in
preference to other members of the community.
Case St udy: Get Growing
Support Fund
Over 1219
beneciaries (minimum)
across 17 different
projects in 5 different
districts of Somerset
Common items included:
* Get Set Grow Courses & other
specialist training* Fencing, timber, sheds,
polytunnels & tools
*Compost & soil buildingmaterials
*Processing equipment
This really wouldnt have been
able to happen without the
grant. Just knowing were being
supported makes so much
difference!- Sarah Laborde,
Axbridge Community Allotment
In the rst 18 months of the project, it was observed that
land sometimes was not the main determining factor to
enable people to get growing. In order to meet community
needs better, the Get Growing Support Fund was launched.
This one-off fund was designed to support community
groups or small social enterprises in Somerset to access the
expertise, tools, advice, training & support they need to bring
new land into production or to support existing projects to
develop and thrive.
This enabled 17 groups to apply for tools required by their
growing projects, many of which can be shared with otherlocal groups if needed. The Get Growing Support Fund
proved very effective in developing relationships with new
and existing contacts, in gauging what communities reallyneed and desire and what capital items are most challenging
for groups to purchase.
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Sharing Skills for FoodProduction
Skills exchanged:
* How to cook: 80+
* How to grow your own food: 392+
* How to harvest
& process food: 64+* How to buy land: 84+
* How to access land: 381+
* Film production
& social media: 12
* Therapeutic horticulture: 45
Total number of people
learning new skills = 1338
Key Learning Points
* Opportunities are not restricted to
courses & events - skills are
exchanged continuously and
learning from others, for example at
allotments or community gardens can
be one of the best ways to learn.
* Courses need to be accessible.
Our funding has meant many free
opportunities have been created,
meeting needs of low-income families
and those without the means to investin paid courses. Ensuring a sliding
scale or bursary places can counter
this nancial exclusion on charged for
courses.
* A key role for SLAF has been tocollate and promote specialist
training already on offer in Somerset
and using our networks to advertisethese opportunities.
* Due to the scale and geography of
Somerset, location-based trainers
may be better placed to lead activities
locally.
* Many are inspired by the work ofothers and seeing real-life projects
through site visits is most benecial.
* Putting theory into practice is
essential and getting your hands dirtyis a must. The time of year coursesrun also makes a difference.
* Re-skilling Somerset will take
generations and it is useful to keep
this long term perspective.
* A Directory of Skills, such as the
planned Knowledgebank can be
difcult to populate, soon out of date
and means the creators could be a
bottleneck of information. From thislearning came Incredible Edible
Somerset - a user led, updateablesocial networking website to enable
skill sharing well beyond the life of the
Somerset Land & Food Project.
One of the keys aims of the Somerset Land & Food Project has
been to develop the range of skills to enable more people toaccess affordable, locally grown and healthy food. Through the
life of the project over 1338 people have been engaged in skill-
sharing. The diverse range of these opportunities has included:
* Six conferences that brought together people from acrossSomerset to not only network but also to learn new skills and
gain advice from others, on everything from composting to fruit
preservation.
* Get Set Grow and Get Set Cook courses are 12 hour
packages developed by Somerset Community Food. JaneSweetman and other trainers have delivered these courses
supporting many people to learn new skills.
* The Access to Land Roadshow created opportunities for
direct knowledge transfer between people and projects working
on a grassroots level to access land.
* The Incredible Edible Somerset Open Gardens - a weekendof open gardens and workshops across the county supported
over 135 people to share skills related to food production.
* Learning for Growth - in partnership with The Magdalen
Project, an environmental education centre and working farm,
near Chard, a series of weekend and short courses were
developed called Learning for Growth. Over 100 individuals
have been introduced to smallholding and growing their own
food through these events.
* Specialist training days have also taken place across
Somerset, many determined by groups via the Get Growing
Support Fund, including forest gardening, fruit tree pruning,
buying land and more.
Saturday 11th & Sunday 12th August 2012 saw the staging ofthe rst Incredible Edible Somerset Open Gardens weekend,
a countywide event organized as part of National Allotments
week, with the aim of raising awareness of Incredible Edible
Somerset, as well as creating the opportunity for exchanging
skills and increasing networking.
* A total of 11 different sites were open to the public at various
points over the weekend including home smallholdings, small
edible gardens, therapeutic horticulture projects,
community orchards, allotment sites, market gardens and
community gardens.* Over 135 people participated in nine different practical
workshops workshops across the county.
* In total at least 170 people visited projects that were open to
the public.
* Key parts of the weekends success included: positive
media coverage, attractive leaets, grassroots participation,workshops that met community needs and social enjoyment.
You have truly made a difference, as people will implementsome of the ideas they saw, leading to a lot of food produced
as well as the other benets of permaculture...Seeing all the
gardens has been such a boost for future growth!
- Angie Rooke, Pilton Road Community Garden
Case St udy: Incredible E dibleSomerset Open Gardens
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Case St udy: LocalConf erences
Over 40 events
involving over 1200 people with and
422 organisations. Over 900 peopleregularly receive local food news
A key outcome for Somerset Land and Food was the creation
of a partnership to progress the aims of the project beyond
2012. While grassroots networks are slowly becoming more
visible and connected, progressing strategic level work has
been slow in a climate of funding and resource cuts affecting
organisations and ofcers engaged in community development.Scaling back of activities within other organisations reduced
their capacity to engage in the project due to loss of key
personnel and their contacts in the community. For acounty-wide initiative predicated on partnership working, these
factors have affected both implementation and exit
strategies. Therefore more work is required to develop the
partnership which can really progress access to land and
growing training in this county.
As access to land was a new area of work for Somerset
Community Food, public engagement was slow to achieve asa whole new audience needed to be identied and reached. It
therefore took time to establish the communications
infrastructure, brand development and network of appropriate
and relevant contacts.
The scale and geography of Somerset has also meant thatthe small staff team of 1 full timer and 1 part timer has had to
rely heavily on electronic communications to engage people.
We have tried to counter the exclusive aspects of this by
touring conferences and public meetings around the
county. But in such a rural, sparsely populated area with limitedpublic transport options, even working at the District level can
be problematic. Finding the right venue and right time of day to
accommodate the widest range of stakeholders has also meant
barriers to participation for some.
A key element in building a stronger local community food
network has been the series of conferences
organised by Somerset Community Food. In this large,
rural county, these regular events have enabled people tocome together and make connections. They have been
staged twice a year and have travelled around the county
district by district to enable and encourage local people toattend and for more localised networks to develop.
Key learning points have included:
* Food is the connector - make sure tasty local produce
is available & shared as an attractor.
* Balance the head with the heart and the hands by
offering a mixture of practical, networking and
theory-based activities, presentations and workshops.* Host events at growing projects where possible or
include site visits so that topics discovered come alive &
feel relevant.
* Design time fornetworking - whether its through long
breaks or facilitated sessions.
Well organised, friendly, easy to network, great &
interesting speakers... I left feeling really skilled and useful
from the discussions Id had and the possible opportunities
Id potentially found. Thank you so much!
Landowner Jill Strawbridge
Conferences:Launch event, Great Bow
Wharf, Langport, 7th
December 2009 attended by
61 people
Spring Conference,
Genesis Centre, Taunton,
27th April 2010, with over 114
attendees
Time2Connect,Victoria Community Centre,
Bridgwater, 16th October
2010 with 56 local people &
practical workshops
Growing Connections in
South Somerset, 28th May
2011 at the Magdalen Project
near Chard with 48 people
Growing Connections in West
Somerset, 10th October 2011
at the Dunster Tithe Barn with
over 42 attendees
Incredible Edible Somerset
Summer Conference,
St Dunstans School &
Paddington Farm,
Glastonbury, 14th July 2012
with over 100 people
8
Many local food projects are site-specic, for example an
allotment or community garden or farm. By contrast, networksare about cross-pollination of ideas, sharing inspiration, news
and examples. As in a garden, in bigger systems there are
nutrient ows with sinks and sources. Some areas are rich in
access to land and skills and other areas are less so. Therefore
creating an effective network is about supporting the owbetween both. Networks can help connect the dots, providing
corridors and linkages between fragmented groups and
projects. At the same time no one size ts all ways and
means differ in rural and urban settings and all are unique to
place, effecting methods of engagement and relationship
building.
Somerset Land and Food, as a county-wide focused access to
land project, has attempted to connect isolated projects into
a more cohesive whole by:
* Developing relationships with community groups and projects,parish, town and district councils, mental health
charities, churches, Transition groups, schools, local food
producers, distributors and anyone else who supports this
agenda.
* Mapping projects and people both online and face to face via
showcases and soapboxes whereby groups and individualscan promote their projects.
* Launching the social networking site Incredible Edible
Somerset which seeks to provide communications infrastructure
for these diverse groups.
* Ensuring an even geographical spread of venues for eventsand support to projects.* Publishing a monthly Somerset Local Food Update
e-newsletter to strengthen this emerging network
Network Building
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RecommendationsThese recommendations are intended to serve anyone thinking
of setting up a similar access to land project either in Somerset
or further aeld. They also act as a roadmap for where future
efforts should be focused to progress access to sufcient landand training in Somerset to build resilience against food
poverty, changing climatic conditions and the fragmentation of
our communities.
While some of the necessary actions can be carried out bysmall, charitable organisations such as Somerset Community
Food (see below for specic actions we will undertake), the
movement must broaden and include players at every level.
1. Increase widespread st ra t egic understanding ofland and f ood issues and sca le up t he means f oref f ect ive act ion to be t aken
An issue of great concern for the Somerset Land and FoodProject has been the lack of strategic allies. The invisibility of
players actively concerned about food security and food poverty
in general, and access to land issues in particular, is very
worrying.
Action: Local leaders must catalyse a wide range of
inuential partners to become engaged in the creation of a
clear, strategic and co-operative plan for how Somerset can
feed itself in view of bigger picture trends and the shadow of the
food footprint of the city of Bristol. (See map on page 4)
2. Invest in high qualit y low cost skills t ra iningand priorit ise young people, low income f amilies,j ob seekers and ot hers in f ood povert y
Most of our farmers are at retirement age and only 3% are
under 35. At the same time we face both a skills crisis and atremendous opportunity. Investment should be prioritised to
support young people, low income families and the
un/under-employed to gain the skills and experiences they needto help feed their dependents and wider communities. Learning
opportunities need to be accessible both geographically and
nancially.
Action:Funders, policy makers and agencies in Somerset
with interests in public health, mental health and well being,skills for life, employment training, community and adult
education and sustainable development champions will reap
multiple economic, job creation and therapeutic benets by
responding proactively and co-operatively to the task of training
and skills development in the area of growing food.
building, district councils, as strategic planners and community
leaders, must reserve sufcient land for this purpose.
Action: All district councils to follow the example of
Taunton Deane Borough Council by developing land usepolicy and strategies that recognise the need for more allotment
space but also acknowledge that building houses with
insufcient private gardens or other allocated space for growing
food in new developments is short sighted and will onlyexacerbate current provision decits.
Action: Community food networks to lobby for the use of
surplus, vacant and derelict Local Authority and other
publicly owned land for both commercial and community
based food production.
4. E ncourage landowners t o release more landf or communit y growing
With more than 1100 Somerset people on waiting lists for a plot
to grow food on, there are clearly opportunities for more
landowners to release land. With 10 hectares of land being
brought into cultivation during the last 3 years, there is muchknowledge to transfer.
Action: Progressive landowners to extol the social and
commercial benets to their peers of releasing land for
community food production. Case studies need to be widely
disseminated along with clear guidelines including opportunitiesfor landowners to meet and share success stories with a wider
audience.
9
3. E nsure suf f icientland is reserved f orcommunit y basedf ood product ion
In 1997, NSALG
recommended that there
should be 20 full sizeallotment plots (250
square meters) per 1000households. More
recently, they have up-
dated this to 60 plots per
1000 households to reectlatent demand. In light of
the recent announcement
that 1500 square miles
are required for house
Can You Dig Itproduced
by the National LocalGovernment Network
reported that in 2007,
Britain had 12,710
hectares of vacant
browneld land. 85%of this land is located inurban areas or within 500
metres of a built-up area
precisely where
growing spaces are in
highest demand.
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Like gardeners who prepare the soil, the Somerset Land and
Food project has created rich conditions for growth for the
community food networks in Somerset. Three growing seasonshave passed and each one has brought new yields, challenges
and diverse harvests of learning.
In April 2012 Somerset Community Food won 12 months further
funding from the Big Lotterys Local Food Programme until
October 2013 to sustain the impact of the project and supportthe changes necessary to create a tangible legacy.
Building on the groundwork laid with staff time and resources
over the last 3 years, Incredible Edible Somerset is the
projects exit strategy. Four key aims are in place for 2013:
Aim 1 - E nable the emerging net work t o becomeest ablished & independent , visible & connect ed
Incredible Edible Somerset is a new social networking site with
huge potential to stimulate capacity building and knowledge,
resource and skill sharing. A space for user-led content to be
created, groups can raise their proles, advertise their eventsand individuals can offer and search for skills.
Somerset Community Food will scale up communication
and knowledge transfer infrastructure, by recruitingmembers to the social networking website, publishing the
Somerset Local Food Update, creating an access to land
handbook and supporting audio video material.
Aim 2 - Max imise grassroot s part icipat ion &knowledge t ransf er wit hin communit ies
There is a missing generation of skilled growers. Therefore
a network of location based mentors is required to broadencapacity for face to face work and to negotiate the geography of
Somerset.
Somerset Community Food will work with Garden Organic
to train a team of skilled local people to act as Master
Gardeners in each district of Somerset where there is known
demand and need. A mobile exhibition will also be developed
to tour libraries, pubs and village halls to promote local growing
opportunities and to increase public participation.
Creating a Lasting Legacy Aim 3 - Develop comprehensive t ra ining mat eria lsSomerset Community Food will:
* Adapt and diversify current training models to better meetthe needs of our communities in a more bespoke way e.g.
develop training packages for mental health service users,
young people, non english speakers, time-poor families, as well
as formore experienced growers and projects who are seeking
more advanced training on food processing and community led
trading.
* Develop resources to share research, case studies and
methods for accessing land with diverse audiences such as
councils, health authorities, schools, mental health charities and
housing associations. One aspect of this is creating a series of
short lms.
Aim 4 - E xplore t he development of a t rainingenterprise as our ex it st rat egy
Somerset Community Food will seek to increase access to
food growing and related training by:
* Conducting market research and training needs analysis* Creating a forward planning group from existing and new
stakeholders
* Accessing social enterprise training
* Exploring the feasibility for a site based training centre
10
Designing for the FutureWe live in challenging times. Every month there are 6 millionnew mouths to feed on the planet. Commentators at every level
are wondering how we can secure food supplies for ourburgeoning global population without further destruction of our
environment, pollution of our water supplies, compromising
of our health and disastrous impacts on the most vulnerable
peoples in other parts of the world, a billion of whom go to bedhungry every night.
This reality will only be sharpened by the damaging effects of an
unpredictably changing climate, the
volatility of energy and other agricultural input prices and
ongoing austerity measures.
Debates rage about the best ways to transform our food system
but, simply put, each one of us can make a difference by
learning how to grow some part of our own food. But to do thiswe will need:
* Access to land. Not everyone has the privilege of their own
garden and therefore we must make sure that sufcient land is
reserved and leased for community based food production.
* To enable massive re-skilling. We must develop effectivemeans to bridge the gap created by a missing generation of
skilled growers by rapidly learning and transferring knowledge
about how to grow food.
* In addition we must choose to support our local producers
to stay in business - the very business of feeding us!
Incredible Edible Somerset is emerging as a network of
ordinary people keen to learn and share their skills,
knowledge and experience. Join us!
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Somerset Community Food
33a High Street
Glastonbury,
Somerset BA6 9HT
Tel : 0300 365 0360
Email: [email protected]
www.somersetcommunityfood.org.uk
www.incredible-edible-somerset.ning.com
Registered charity number: 1107311.Limited company registration number: 4290175
http://www.somersetcommunityfood.org.uk/http://www.incredible-edible-somerset.ning.com/http://www.incredible-edible-somerset.ning.com/http://www.somersetcommunityfood.org.uk/