A Summary

Introduction

The Growing Together Project is a community food growing and training programme, based at Cottismore Park near Kingsclere, Hampshire and containing greenhouse, community garden and orchard areas.

The Project is developed and managed using the experience already gained in the existing partnership working between Newbury Community Resource Centre (NCRC) operators of the Community Furniture Projects in Newbury, Greenham and Basingstoke, and West Berkshire Mencap (WBM) at the Slater Centre.

Both organisations have proven track records of working successfully with people with learning difficulties and disadvantaged groups. Through practical involvement with the Project these people, plus others from the area, are provided with volunteering, accredited training and job creation opportunities.

The Project will also used as a training area and educational facility for local groups and individuals promoting their involvement with local food.

Both the NCRC and WBM are oversubscibed with those keen to experience outdoor activity.

The project has adopted a programme of growing rotational seasonal fruit and vegetables and will offer them for sale at the Furniture Project’s sales outlets.

Aim

To establish and sustain at Cottismore Park a community food growing and training project that will provide opportunities for members of the local community and in particular those with learning difficulties or at social disadvantage to participate in growing food .

Outcomes

Outcome 1

Develop and maintain a 1.5 hectare (3.8 acre) site (including approximately 1,000 sq. metres of greenhouse) to provide opportunities for people to engage in local food production activities by provision of access to greenhouses, community garden and orchard areas.

Outcome 2

Create opportunities for learning and the development of skills through volunteering, training and job creation. Create permanent jobs throughout the lifetime of the Project, recruit new volunteers each year and provide training placements each year.

Outcome 3

Promote awareness and understanding of the links between food and healthy lifestyles. The NCRC currently has three retail outlets with a combined number of 28,000 visitors a year. The Project will seek to engage a proportion of these visitors by promoting awareness and understanding of the links between food and healthy lifestyles through the distribution of information leaflets (including recipe ideas), by selling food produced by the Project, and holding open days annually at Cottismore.

Project Beneficiaries

Growing Together will help people within Basingstoke and Deane and West Berkshire Council areas, including those living on a low income, and also people with learning and other associated disabilities, to experience growing food and provide them with access to fresh local produce.

The Project will provide volunteering opportunities to all sectors of the community.Through close partnership working with West Berkshire Mencap and various departments of Basingstoke and Deane and West Berkshire Councils members of the community normally excluded from opportunities to grow food will be also able to participate fully in the Project through volunteering, with accredited training opportunities available.

Organisations that will benefit from the Project include local groups working with people in need of physical support to undertake growing activities including West Berkshire Alzheimer’s Society and Newbury Stroke Club to whom physical support will be provided by Project Volunteers. As well as organisations dealing with Youth Offenders (Rainer), Adult Offenders (Probation Service), Youth Trainees and Schools (Basingstoke Training Consortium and West Berkshire Education Business Partnership), Unemployed Adults (Job Centre Plus and Action 4 Employment) and group members of Basingstoke Voluntary Services.

Over the first three years of the Project the following groups of people will benefit directly from the project, including:

-  employees in newly created posts.
-  new volunteers
-  existing volunteers
-  trainees
-  service users, volunteers and staff of other organisations using the site
-  local residents with plots on site
-  households participating in the promotion and awareness of the links between food and healthy lifestyles through attending open days.

In addition to the above, it is anticipated that the distribution of leaflets to visitors to the three Furniture Project retail outlets and the general public will also generate interest leading to subsequent direct benefit being derived.

A number of local organisations will benefit directly from the Project.

Succesful trainees where appropriate will be encouraged to transfer the practice of their skills to Local Authority allotments or their own garden where feasible in order to maximise the number of people benefitting from the site.

Sustainability

Environmental

As stated in its charitable objects, the NCRC promotes the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment for the public benefit by promotion of sustainable waste management practices including waste minimization, minimization of pollution and harm from waste, reuse of waste, recycling of waste, waste recovery activities.

These objects will be delievered in Growing Together through the operation of the following and additional activities during the development of the site -

- Only existing buildings will be used and where possible refurbishment will be completed with pre-used materials.
- Only one of the three existing greenhouses will be heated.
- All construction waste currently on site will be recycled to provide base materials for paths
- Rainwater harvesting will be introduced to supplement the current water supply
- The use of photo voltaics and wind power are to be investigated
- All green waste produced on site will be composted for use on site
- A green transport will be adopted for the site to reduce carbon emissions from staff and volunteers focusing on the use of public transport, car sharing and use of minibuses.
- A significant part of the site will be set aside as a wildlife area with periodic bio-diversity audits being undertaken
- The existing public footpath through the site will be maintained in a manner sympathetic to the local environment

Social

Growing Together will be a positive response to the need of individuals and families, many living on a low income, in West Berkshire and Basingstoke and Deane to have access to locally produced food and opportunities to engage in growing for themselves.

The Project Growing Together will extend volunteering and training opportunities to individuals currently unable to participate in food growing activities. The demand for volunteering and training opportunities is unlikely to diminish and will probably grow as the Project moves towards its full potential as planned and interest grows as its reputation is established.