Who Feeds Us?

This Spring, Farming The Future launched a Coronavirus emergency response fund: a collaboration between The A Team Foundation, the Roddick Foundation, Thirty Percy and the Samworth Foundation, offering financial support for initiatives that rose to meet the immediate crisis whilst building longer-term resilience. One of the those to receive funding was the award-winning podcast, Farmerama, for a new series called ‘Who Feeds Us?’ A collection of stories about some of the people who produce our food, the 6-part series explores what it takes to feed and nourish communities in the time of a pandemic. The experiences of growers, suppliers, academics, activists, authors and chefs, offers insight into how food that is nourishing for people and the planet might be made accessible to all. The podcast is produced by Jo Barratt, Abby Rose, and Katie Revell, with a team of 23 people, brought together by advisor Dee Woods. Illustrations by Hannah Grace

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Who feeds us? Episode #1: The Hungry Gap

Whilst the UK went into lockdown this March, supermarket shelves stood empty and many people began to question how we might feed ourselves. The idea of localised food systems went from being a distant dream to a substantial means of sustenance for many people across the country. So, who and what made up those localised food systems? Where did this sudden burst of community provision come from?

Episode #1 covers many corners of the food system, from those supplying high-end restaurants to those on the frontline of emergency food responses. Talking about how their relationships within the industry and community helped them to face new and existing challenges, we hear from farmer, Jane Scotter and chef, Skye Gyngell; from Angus Buchanan-Smith in Scotland, who grew his farm-to-table restaurant into a CSA scheme and education project; from two London beekeepers, Salma and Khalil Attan, who divulge some of the benefits of lockdown for bees; and from Ursula Myrie, founder of Sheffield community food project - the Food Pharmacy.

As the COVID-19 lockdown hit the UK in early 2020, our nation suddenly looked very different. Supermarket shelves were empty and, for the first time in most people's lives, we started to question how we were going to feed ourselves, and our families. Almost overnight, localised food systems went from being niche fantasies to a vital source of sustenance for many people around the country. But who – and what – made up those localised food systems? Where did this sudden burst of community provision come from? In this episode we hear from four very different corners of the food system. From people supplying high-end restaurants to people on the frontlines of emergency food response. They all share what the lockdown meant for them and their communities, as well as how what they are doing helps feed us every day – the strength of close farm-restaurant relationships, the difficulties dairy farmers have faced in the last few decades, the health benefits of local honey, and the need for culturally appropriate food. All of these stories begin to hint at what a food system woven with dignity might look like. This is only part 1; we will be meeting each of these people again in the final episode to hear their visions for the future and what’s next for those who feed us. As we learn in many different ways throughout this series: Food is not just a question of calories. Food is nourishment for the body and soul. Food is about community, culture and our relationship with each other and with the Earth. We are all the food system. Interviews with Skye Gyngell https://springrestaurant-shop.co.uk/ Jane Scotter http://fernverrow.com/ Angus Buchanan-Smith https://www.the-free-company.com/ Salma & Khalil Attan ttps://www.bushwoodbees.co.uk/ // https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVrsm10F2zp_KO26MBCGRUw Ursula Myrie https://www.adira.org.uk/ Farmerama.co Producer: Suzie McCarthy Executive Producers: Jo Barratt, Katie Revell, Abby Rose Additional Interviews: Lovejit Dhaliwal Community Collaborators: Cathy St Germans, Zain Dada, Col Gordon Artwork: Hannah Grace www.hgraceoc.com/ Music: Michael O'Neil PR & Comms: Fran Bailey, Kate Lam, Elma Glasgow, Nancy Brownlow Who Feeds Us? is possible thanks to the Farming the Future COVID Response Fund. We’re very grateful to The A Team Foundation, the Roddick Foundation, Thirty Percy and the Samworth Foundation for providing the funds to make this project happen.

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Who Feeds Us? #2: Land, Animal, Journey

Episode #2 asks how the pandemic has changed the people who care for the animals that feed us, exploring how it has impacted their relationships with work and their communities. How have the perspectives of those producing fish, cheese and meat in the UK been affected by their experiences of the pandemic, and how are they adapting to life in lockdown?

First crossing the Irish Sea to Ballylisk in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, we meet Dean Wright, a dairy farmer and cheese-maker who began to deliver milk and other artisan products to his local community at the onset of lockdown. Heading to Wales, we hear from Muhsen Hassanin, a smallholder and halal slaughter-man who provides regeneratively farmed meat to Muslims across the UK. And lastly, we meet John Martin Tulloch, a fishmonger in the Shetland Isles who lost his international market, but fortunately found a new customer base much closer to home.

American poet and farmer Gary Snyder writes of the interconnectedness and interdependence of the food chain. He says, “To acknowledge that each of us at the table will eventually be part of the meal is not just being ‘realistic.’ It is allowing the sacred to enter and accepting the sacramental aspect of our shaky temporary personal being.” In this episode, we explore the ways in which a growing consciousness is developing around food, based on ideas of reverence, and gratitude. How have the people who care for the animals that feed us – both in life and in death – changed during this time of crisis? How has the way they understand the future of food been altered by the pandemic, and their own responses to it? How do they see their own place in that future? Who Feeds Us? is a celebration of these key workers, a thank you and a call to action – so we don’t forget just how ‘key’ they are. Featuring: Dean Wright: https://www.ballyliskofarmagh.com/ Muhsen Hassanin: https://abrahamshalalmeat.com/ John Martin Tulloch: https://www.tasteofshetland.com/producers/island-fish-shetland-ltd Farmerama.co Producer: Phil Smith Executive Producers: Jo Barratt, Katie Revell, Abby Rose Community Collaborators: Zain Dada, Col Gordon, Fern Towers Artwork: Hannah Grace https://www.hgraceoc.com/ Music: Michael O'Neil Project Manager: Olivia Oldham PR & Comms: Fran Bailey, Kate Lam, Elma Glasgow, Nancy Brownlow Who Feeds Us? is possible thanks to the Farming the Future COVID Response Fund. We’re very grateful to The A Team Foundation, the Roddick Foundation, Thirty Percy and the Samworth Foundation for providing the funds to make this project happen.

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Who Feeds Us? #3: Growing Our Own

As supermarkets struggled to restock fruit and veg, the idea of ‘growing your own’ took on new significance. To grow your own food, the first thing you need are seeds. For centuries farmers saved their seeds, which adapted to their environments and created local varieties. With the development of commercial seeds that can’t be harvested or re-sown, crops grew less resilient and sustainable. Now, by preserving open-pollinated seeds, communities around the world are helping to ensure their own food security in the face of a climate crisis as well as the current pandemic.

Episode #3 begins in the Midlands, where we hear from Astrid Guillabeau, a Birmingham-based mother who began asking how we can grow our own food in cities. Then it’s over to Walsall-based landworker and founder of No Diggity Gardens, Neville Portas, on the importance of self-sufficiency for his community. In London we hear from Dee Woods, activist and co-founder of Granville Community Kitchen, about the importance of human connection and empowerment through growing food. And lastly, we meet Helene Schulze, a passionate seed saver who tells us why seed sovereignty is vital for a resilient food future.

As lockdown came into effect, and supermarkets struggled to restock their fruit and vegetable aisles, the idea of “growing your own” took on a new significance. In towns and cities across the UK, those of us lucky enough to have access to gardens or balconies – even if we’d never grown anything before – suddenly started looking for compost, tools, and seeds. Many of us discovered, perhaps for the first time, the joy of eating freshly picked, homegrown fruit and veg. It’s a joy that you just don’t get when you bite into something that’s been harvested unripe on the other side of the world, flown across oceans to be processed somewhere else, then eventually picked up from a supermarket chiller here in the UK – maybe weeks later. But, to grow your own food, the first thing you need are seeds. For millennia – for the vast majority of our agricultural history, in fact – farmers saved their own seed. Over time, plants adapted to the specifics of the area they were growing in, and local varieties emerged. But when seed companies developed F1 hybrids, which can’t be harvested and re-sown year after year, things changed. The genetics of these hybrids are too unstable – there’s no knowing how your crop will turn out. So farmers and growers reliant on F1 hybrids have to buy their seeds every single year. By saving and sharing open-pollinated seed, farmers and growers – and communities – are helping make sure our food supply can withstand the shocks of climate change. And, they’re also reclaiming collective control of the seeds we all depend on to feed ourselves – ensuring that we all have access to those seeds, even during a crisis – like a pandemic. Featuring: Astrid Guillabeau: Neville Portas: https://nodiggitygdns.wordpress.com/ Dee Woods: https://granvillecommunitykitchen.wordpress.com/ Helene Schulze: https://www.seedsovereignty.info/ Farmerama.co Producer: Alice Armstrong Executive Producers: Jo Barratt, Katie Revell, Abby Rose Community Collaborators: Andre Reid, Dhelia Snoussi Project Manager: Olivia Oldham Artwork: Hannah Grace www.hgraceoc.com/ Music: Michael O'Neil PR & Comms: Fran Bailey, Kate Lam, Elma Glasgow, Nancy Brownlow Who Feeds Us? is possible thanks to the Farming the Future COVID Response Fund. We’re very grateful to The A Team Foundation, the Roddick Foundation, Thirty Percy and the Samworth Foundation for providing the funds to make this project happen.

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Who Feeds Us? #4: Whole Meal

When flour became scarce, many who mightn’t usually seek out a local bakery, let alone a local mill, started to do just that. In episode #4 we find out how this sudden upsurge in demand presented a huge challenge for bakers and millers – a challenge met with enthusiasm and ingenuity. Investigating connections between bread, mills, the farms that grow the grain, and the soil in which its grown, learn about the system behind most of the bread eaten in the UK, and the localised, smaller-scale alternatives, which found it could sustain itself during the pandemic.

Hear from Abigail Holsborough, the head miller at Brixton Windmill in South London and at the core of its local community as flour ran low. Meet Rosy Benson, who founded Bristol bakery, Bread and Roses, to provide nourishing loaves to those who needed them most. Then head to a small village in the Highlands of Scotland to hear from Rosie Gray, who set up her bakery, Reviving Foods, in a converted horse-box.

At the start of lockdown, as supermarket shelves were cleared of flour, people who might not otherwise have thought to seek out a local bakery – let alone a local mill – started to do just that. In this episode, we’ll hear about how this sudden upsurge in demand presented a huge challenge for these small-scale bakers and millers – but it was a challenge they met with enthusiasm and ingenuity, as well as a deep sense of responsibility to their communities. At one time, pretty much every town and village had its own flour mill, driven by wind or water. Today, across the whole of London, just one working windmill remains – Brixton Windmill. It’s a unique heritage site with a rich educational programme. But as lockdown began, the mill became much more than a historic curiosity – and its volunteers found themselves providing a vital service to the local community. Meanwhile, bakers across the country, from the city of Bristol to the highlands of Scotland, were baking nourishing loaves for the people who needed them most. These bakers and millers, many of whom have spent the last few years investigating the connections between the bread, the mills, the farms that produce the grain, and, crucially, the soil in which that grain grows, are engaged in building a better system – one that looks very different to the one that produces most of the bread we eat in the UK today. When inflexible, centralised supermarket supply chains buckled, join us to learn how they were able to carry on producing flour, baking bread and feeding people – thanks to the localised, adaptable, human-scale infrastructure they’re part of. How can we grow that infrastructure? How can we all become part of a more resilient, equitable, efficient and enjoyable bread system? How can we help local millers stock local takeaways with bread baked with their flour? How can we help people to understand that, if they care about good bread, they also have to care about healthy soil? And how can we make sure that we celebrate everyone involved in making our bread – and that we listen to what they have to say? Featuring: Abigail Holsborough: https://www.brixtonwindmill.org/ Rosy Benson: https://www.fieldbakery.com/ Rosie Gray: http://www.revivingfood.co.uk/ Farmerama.co Producer: Dave Pickering Executive Producers: Jo Barratt, Katie Revell, Abby Rose Community Collaborators: Cathy St Germans, Col Gordon Project Manager: Olivia Oldham Artwork: Hannah Grace www.hgraceoc.com/ Music: Michael O'Neil PR & Comms: Fran Bailey, Kate Lam, Elma Glasgow, Nancy Brownlow Who Feeds Us? is possible thanks to the Farming the Future COVID Response Fund. We’re very grateful to The A Team Foundation, the Roddick Foundation, Thirty Percy and the Samworth Foundation for providing the funds to make this project happen.

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Who Feeds Us? #5: Cultivating Abundance

Episode #5 is set in the West Midlands, where it examines how the pandemic has highlighted connections between food, health, community and identity. Learning about the resources and needs of individuals and communities at this time, particularly those of African descent, we ask how access to land and growing space can feed us in different ways, through experiences of abundance and the ability to share in it.

We hear from Lynda Macfarlane, the founder of Vegan Vybes, a community group in Birmingham championing cruelty-free, creative ways of living and communicating. Farmerama collaborator and co-founder of Kiondo, Andre Reid, shares his story of setting up a WhatsApp group for his community to grow food and become more resilient. And academic, Dr Lisa Palmer, talks about her ‘Digging Around’ project, which researched the long history of African and Caribbean communities in Britain growing food and maintaining connections to their heritage through allotment gardening.

In this episode, we visit one region – the West Midlands – to explore how the pandemic has highlighted connections between the local and the global, the present and the past...and between food, health, community and identity. What can we learn from this time about the experiences, the resources and the needs of individuals and communities in the UK – and, in particular, communities of African descent? How can having access to land, to green space and growing space, “feed” us in multiple ways – physical, emotional and spiritual? Does being together in growing spaces allow the experience of abundance and the ability to share in that? Featuring: Lynda McFarlane: https://veganvybes.co.uk/ Dr Lisa Palmer: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/social-sciences/sociology/staff/lisa-palmer Andre Reid: https://kiondo.co.uk/ Farmerama.co Producer: DeMarkay Williams Executive Producers: Jo Barratt, Katie Revell, Abby Rose Community Collaborator: Andre Reid Project Manager: Olivia Oldham Artwork: Hannah Grace www.hgraceoc.com/ Music: Michael O'Neil PR & Comms: Fran Bailey, Kate Lam, Elma Glasgow, Nancy Brownlow Who Feeds Us? is possible thanks to the Farming the Future COVID Response Fund. We’re very grateful to The A Team Foundation, the Roddick Foundation, Thirty Percy and the Samworth Foundation for providing the funds to make this project happen.

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Who Feeds Us? #6: Looking Back and Moving Forward

The final instalment of the series revisits the people introduced in previous episodes, and unravels the common threads that bind these seemingly disparate voices together, such as reverence, gratitude, sovereignty, dignity and abundance. We hear more about they’ve learnt so far this year and their visions for resilient, localised food economies growing into the future.

Food is clearly not just a question of calories; food is nourishment for the body and soul. Food is about community, culture and our relationship with each other and with the Earth. We are all part of the food system.  

The journey towards a truly resilient, humane and nourishing food system is complicated and will most likely be a bumpy one. The series closes with an invitation to embrace that complexity, to dive in, to seek out and connect with those who feed us, because food doesn’t come from shelves, food comes from the soil, the sea, and the hands of people. This is who feeds us.

In this final episode, we revisit some of the people we’ve heard from throughout the series. We tease out some common threads that bind these apparently disparate voices together – threads such as reverence, gratitude, sovereignty, dignity and abundance. We hear more about what these people have learnt over the course of this year, their visions for resilient, localised food economies... and how they see the future of who feeds us. It is clearer than ever: Food is not just a question of calories. Food is nourishment for the body and soul. Food is about community, culture and our relationship with each other and with the Earth. We are all part of the food system. The journey ahead – towards a truly resilient, humane and nourishing food system, a food system rooted in abundance – that journey is complicated, and it will most likely be bumpy. But this series is an invitation to embrace that complexity, to dive into it, to seek out and connect with those who feed us. After all – food doesn’t come from shelves. Food comes from the soil, the sea – and the hands of people. This is who feeds us. Featuring: Skye Gyngell: https://springrestaurant-shop.co.uk/ Jane Scotter: http://fernverrow.com/ Salma & Khalil Attan: https://www.bushwoodbees.co.uk/ // https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVrsm10F2zp_KO26MBCGRUw Ursula Myrie: https://www.adira.org.uk/ Angus Buchanan-Smith: https://www.the-free-company.com/ Dee Woods: https://granvillecommunitykitchen.wordpress.com/ Dr Lisa Palmer: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/social-sciences/sociology/staff/lisa-palmer Muhsen Hassanin: https://abrahamshalalmeat.com/ Abigail Holsborough: https://www.brixtonwindmill.org/ Rosy Benson: www.fieldbakery.com/ Lynda McFarlane: https://veganvybes.co.uk/ Farmerama.co Producers: Jo Barratt, Katie Revell, Abby Rose, Suzie McCarthy Additional interview: Lovejit Dhaliwal Series Executive Producers: Jo Barratt, Katie Revell, Abby Rose Community Collaborators: Cathy St Germans, Zain Dada, Andre Reid Project Manager: Olivia Oldham Artwork: Hannah Grace www.hgraceoc.com/ Music: Michael O'Neil PR & Comms: Fran Bailey, Kate Lam, Elma Glasgow, Nancy Brownlow Who Feeds Us? is possible thanks to the Farming the Future COVID Response Fund. We’re very grateful to The A Team Foundation, the Roddick Foundation, Thirty Percy and the Samworth Foundation for providing the funds to make this project happen.

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A Coronavirus Emergency Response Fund for future-proof farming

10 Covid crisis responses, funded by Farming The Future, that rose to meet the many challenges of the moment with short-term solutions that lead to long-term regenerative resilience.

Coronavirus exposed many cracks in the food system on which we depend. The few supermarket chains relied upon to keep food flowing onto shelves were flooded with pressure and those cranking the strained supply chain named key workers. Nations prioritised their own food supply and global imports stalled, as the UK entered its ‘growing gap’ and the fragility of our food security entered the headlines. 

In the fields farmers grafted harder than ever, planting complex growing systems whilst responding to unprecedented demand for food and rapidly reorienting their routes to market. Meanwhile, farms felt the absence of seasonal workers due to international travel restrictions, as the national workforce was impeded by the pandemic.

With restaurants and markets closed by Covid, food needed to reach people in other places and new ways. The most vulnerable citizens, already more likely to suffer from food injustice, were left counting on the kindness of their communities, dependent on desperate food banks, or relying on the army to deliver emergency food parcels without the nutrition needed during a health crisis.

Farming The Future launched an emergency response fund for organisations on the frontline, to support short-term crisis solutions with long-term strategies for future crises, fortifying the UK’s food security and regenerative food movement. Applications were invited from groups previously funded by FTF partners - The A Team Foundation, The Roddick Foundation, Samworth Foundation or Thirty Percy Foundation - so they could be accepted in a flexible format and processed swiftly, recognising the urgency and pressure already weighing heavily on organisations.

We’re proud to share the 10 projects that received funding with you here. If you would like to know more about the work, please feel free to email Robert@ateamfoundation.org 

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A support network for new ways of working

Project lead: Community Supported Agriculture Network

Partners: FarmEd, Land Workers Alliance, Organic Growers Alliance, Soil Association 

Providing urgently needed business advice to the food and farming community was a priority, with several mentorship project applications being submitted. Farming the Future therefore brought together a handful of organisations and asked them for a coordinated response to the Covid crisis. A support network was formed between the Community Supported Agriculture Network (CSA); a cooperative membership scheme that promotes fair and transparent food production, FarmED; a regenerative farming and sustainable food education centre, the Land Workers Alliance (LWA); a union of farmers, foresters and land-based workers, the Organic Growers Alliance (OGA); a peer-to-peer support network of growers, and the Soil Association; collaborating with organisations and individuals across the food and education system to promote organic food and farming since 1946.

The project provides education and advice to growers and food businesses having to rethink their business structures due to the pandemic. Using their different strengths, expertise and audiences, the organisations designed a package of support to cover diverse issues using various formats, cross-promoting and signposting to one another, to make it as accessible as possible. In this way, a stronger support network was provided for the growing community at this time of need. 

Knowledge shared through the network included tools for setting up a CSA or box scheme, stories of positive, diverse Covid responses from growers and communities to inform and inspire, expert advice from Soil Association producer and supply chain teams, and an extension of their Food for Life Programme to support cooks in schools and care homes.

By coming together to help small-scale farmers and growers navigate the immediate crisis, the network is helping to keep quality food on forks, whilst building awareness and growing engagement in the regenerative food movement. By helping more people to adopt new methods and markets, the more resilient and thriving our local food system and environment will become in the long term.

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Keeping the community kitchen cooking

Project lead: The Larder (Lancashire and Region Dietary Education Resource)

The Larder is a small social enterprise with a big vision of ‘food fairness for all’, promoting healthy, sustainable food whilst tackling food poverty and food waste. A café and catering business in Preston that cooks with local, ethical ingredients, the venue hosts local activist and wellbeing groups and is home to a food academy for learners including ex-offenders, Syrian refugees and low-income families, and trains community ‘Food Champions’.

Photo from The Larder

Swiftly transforming the community kitchen into a Covid response unit, The Larder delivers 50-150 nutritious meals a day to vulnerable members of the community who are referred by local authorities and charities. Supported by rapidly recruited volunteers and founder of the Granville Community Kitchen, Dee Woods, The Larder quickly set up and began ‘Cooking for our Community’ on 23rd March: the day that lockdown began.

Continuing to support local producers through procurement and working more closely with local charities and authorities, The Larder’s relationships have been nurtured during the crisis. As well as meals, The Larder began offering online cookery courses for the community, including a ‘Kids in the Kitchen’ programme, delivered to 36 families along with the ingredients for 10 recipes at Easter, in partnership with a local housing association.

FTF funding is contributing to The Larder’s immediate community Covid response, which will include a cookery programme for 120 families over the summer holiday, and the continued provision of nutritious meals for those in need until the end of the year. A long-term recovery strategy aims to create community food independence and empowerment, including expansion of online resources and working with local government and Syrian Resettlement programme to support people who are even more vulnerable since the crisis hit, so that they will be food secure for the future.

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Who Feeds Us? Stories from a Crisis

Project lead: Farmerama

The award-winning agroecology amplifier - Farmerama, asks the question that the Covid crisis raised for many: ‘Who Feeds Us?’ A collection of stories about people who grow and process our food, how they were affected by Covid, their hard work and incredible capacity for innovation, will make up a podcast series that aims to solidify the relationships built between the food community during the pandemic, nourishing them for the future.

Promoting those who came together to feed their communities in new ways, Farmerama will provide a platform for the underrepresented and diverse voices on the ground and at home, building bonds whilst developing awareness of the wider movement. By explaining the current state of our food system alongside responses and solutions, the dream of food sovereignty will be brought to life by mapping the paths carved during the pandemic that could lead to a resilient, new food system to serve us for many years to come. 

In order to engage many more citizens in the subject of food sustainability, equality and economics, Farmerama’s plan encompasses niche networks, celebrity influencers, local and national PR, to promote the benefits of supporting local food producers, and the importance of a regenerative food system for everyone in society. We all need to eat, therefore we all need to know: ‘Who feeds us?’

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Getting products from pasture to people during a pandemic

Project lead: Pasture-Fed Livestock Association 

The Pasture-Fed Livestock Association (PFLA) certifies and promotes 100% pasture-fed meat and dairy in the UK; recognised and renowned for its highly nutritional quality, as well as environmental and animal welfare. PFLA members include certified farmers, butcheries and dairies who work with livestock that have been pasture-fed for their whole lives.

With the catering and restaurant industry closed for business, PFLA members had to find new routes to market. A shorter supply chain for people to buy directly from producers required a new level of operation and expertise that many small businesses lacked, including marketing, sales and delivery. 

To help the pasture-fed community navigate the new supply chain, PFLA received funding to produce a package of support, including guidance for direct sales from the farm through to e-commerce, packaging and logistics. As well as being available for questions and advice, PFLA is also building relationships with larger sales platforms, advocating for its members to be represented, and supporting retail businesses in the promotion of pasture-fed produce.

The funding also enables PFLA to develop regional groups, identified by members as the best solution to supply chain issues, bringing together local farmers, butchers and retailers. This initiative is a leading example of the collaborative, local networks needed to drive resilient, thriving economies and communities, growing out of the regenerative food movement and found across the globe in emergency responses to Covid that could create long-term advances for climate, community and food justice.

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Growing the community food connection during Covid

Project lead: Growing Communities

Growing Communities (GC) offers an equitable, community-led route to market for small-scale organic farmers through a local organic veg box membership scheme and farmers’ market in East London. With growing sites, training programmes, a network of like-minded retailers and a new model of wholesale supply, GC generate income for growers as well as enriching lives and caring for the planet.

At the onset of the Covid crisis, GC received a huge rise in demand from existing and new members for the healthy, immune-supporting, nutritious food it offers. Meanwhile, farmers were left with surplus, without food markets and restaurants to supply, and an urgent need for direct routes to market, such as the one provided by GC. 

Covid created a whirlwind of staff safety regulation, creating a need for extra space to pack and store food safely. A buddy scheme was born for customers unable to collect their veg boxes, and GC home deliveries. These extra costs flew in at the same time as income from the stall and other outlets disappeared, so, despite increased revenue from sales, the books didn’t balance and the business suffered a loss. 

GC found themselves to be considered an ‘essential service’ and their staff ‘key workers’, which validated the sustainable ethos of their business model whilst they continued supplying the community with fresh, nutritious food during the crisis. With funding to help recover the unexpected financial loss, GC’s purpose has been proven during this testing time, and can now continue to be cultivated by the growing trust and loyalty between farmers, suppliers and citizens.

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A local compass for regenerative farming in public procurement

Project lead: Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group

Partners: Boomcircle, National Farmers Union, Countryside Community Research Institute, Sustainable Food Trust

The Farmland Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG), a Gloucestershire-based charity formed in the 1960s, was created by a group of forward-thinking farmers who recognised the health of the environment as a key for success in farming. FWAG provides trusted, independent advice to the farming community, on how and why to improve and benefit from the environmental value of their land within the current climate.

With food in the limelight during the Covid crisis, the long distance between people and places where food is grown has been shown up. County councils are starting to ask what they could do to safeguard the food security of their communities for the future; cue regenerative farming entering the conversation.

‘The Compass Project’, funded by FTF, includes a FWAG template for ‘Dynamic Procurement Systems’ that invites local authorities and regenerative food businesses into a circular model for regionalised economic recovery. This initiative encourages public institutions such as schools and hospitals to serve locally sourced, nutritious food, as well as investment into regenerative agriculture. 

The stimulus aims to increase short-term confidence of an economic recovery for food and farming industries, whilst hospitality and tourism get back on their feet. Longer-term, it stimulates the sustainable growth of a local economy, creating jobs, innovation and resilience, as well as producing human and environmental health benefits. This compass for public food procurement hopes to guide other regional authorities towards building a regenerative food industry, paving the way from Gloucestershire across the country. 

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Providing Manchester people with Manchester veg 

Project leads: The Kindling Trust

Partners: Veg Box People and Manchester Veg People

The Kindling Trust projects encourage the growth of local organic veg, which, working alongside Manchester Veg People (MVP) and Veg Box People (VBP) - co-ops of local growers, buyers and workers, is supplied to people, restaurants and caterers. This family of not-for-profit social enterprises champions a fairer, sustainable, Manchester-based food model that values the land and people growing food regeneratively.

FTF funding is aiding a long-term expansion of this veg box scheme, as an emergency response to the Covid crisis. Demand for VBP’s veg boxes exploded to include those struggling to access food, as collection points closed, and MVP’s orders disappeared with the orders from restaurants and institutions. Meanwhile, The Kindling Trust had to start planting at the same time as losing the volunteer base.

Responding to the needs and challenges of lockdown, operations were reorganised to provide home delivery, social support and Covid-proof volunteer opportunities. Continuing to supply veg box members and accept some new subscribers, the expansion will enable the enterprises to support and engage others who haven’t accessed their fresh organic local veg before, with more packing space, more people to pack and more time to publicise it. 

This crisis has only strengthened the working relationships, reach and value of The Kindling Trust, MVP and VBP’s work in the community. The growth in membership and operation of the box scheme, with ongoing promotion and awareness, will retain its worth well beyond the Covid crisis across the changed landscape.

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Levelling the growing field in a time of crisis

Project lead: Land Workers Alliance

Project partners: Community Supported Agriculture Network, Better Food Traders, Independent Food Aid Network, Open Food Network 

Land Workers Alliance (LWA) is a union of farmers, foresters and land-based workers that aims to improve livelihoods, food and land-use systems. Picking up on data collected during the Covid crisis showing a 113% increase in demand for veg boxes, LWA received funding to provide strategic support for veg box producers.

LWA worked with the CSA Network to identify 6-8 diverse food businesses embedded in their local communities, that can respond quickly to this and future food crises, but, despite growing demand, are reluctant to take out loans due to the recession. A mix of rural and urban farms with links to a community kitchen or food aid scheme will receive grants to help them reorientate, increase production and improve access to food.

Grants require the farms to incorporate agroecology and access to food for vulnerable people or key workers through the Independent Food Aid Network. Measures of the initiative’s success are being delivered to DEFRA - policy makers in England and Wales, whilst stories from the project are harvested for PR campaigns that encourage people to stick with local suppliers and veg boxes, and promote the benefits of regenerative farming. A short-term response to this crisis, this strategic collaboration supports community-focused solutions for the long-term transition into a sustainable and more equalised food system.

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Ensuring the seeds of food sovereignty continue to be sewn

Project lead: Gaia Foundation

The Gaia Foundation’s seed sovereignty programme works with organic seed growers and distributors to enable the transition to agroecological farming across the globe. Projects involve training new growers as well as raising awareness and creating understanding of seed sovereignty, and its role in creating regenerative, transformative change.

In the light of the Covid crisis on the precarious, unfair and unsustainable nature of our current food system, demand for organic seeds increased by up to 600%, as people tried to take food security into their own hands and land. The small businesses that produce and trade seeds found themselves overwhelmed by demand, struggling to fulfil supply whilst also cultivating next year’s crop with reduced capacity (due to self isolation / physical distancing).

FTF funding will provide the means for Gaia-supported producers to grow their operations efficiently, so they can package and distribute more seeds more easily, and ensure the cultivation of seeds for next year and many years to come. Sustainable growth will allow the seed sovereignty movement to keep up with the momentum being gained by regenerative farming following this crisis, for a more food secure future.

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Market Garden Cities creating Capital Growth

Project lead: Sustain

Sustain, ‘the alliance for better food and farming’, has supported thousands of London food gardens for over a decade, working with land-owners, growers, community enterprises, councils and local government. A survey of its network during the Covid crisis confirmed an increase in the demand for fresh fruit and vegetables, and, despite physical distancing, the importance of keeping gardens open to grow more of them.

Sustain turned to its ‘Capital Growth’ network, consisting of commercial peri-urban farms, small community gardens and individual plot-style spaces on estates, to create a pilot ‘Market Garden City’. Funded by FTF, communities of skilled growers, local volunteers and distribution networks are coming together around 50 gardens. Data from the project is being harvested for a scaling-up report of the initiative.

Aiming to increase the production and distribution of fresh food in the wake of Covid, Sustain will develop the blueprint longer-term by its ‘Sustainable Food Places’ programme, and ‘Good to Grow’ national networks. As this crisis demonstrates the urgency of urban growing for feeding city dwellers, and local authorities become more engaged in community enterprise, it’s the perfect time to implement projects that reveal and realise the potential for a localised, resilient, regenerative future food system.

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