This year at the farm we have been reviewing our long-term plans, recognizing that we need to constantly evolve to meet the changing needs of our community, as well as the needs of the food system toto best serve local people, other food producers, wildlife and the climate.
As part of this process, we’ve spoken with many people in our community, including staff, volunteers, customers, suppliers, donors, shareholders, community groups, course attendees and friends of the farm. This work culminated in September, when we welcomed more than 60 people into our warehouse for two half day consultations .
The output of those conversations and our leadership team’s work is summarised below.
A redefined mission, building on our Founding Rules:
Our mission is to get more people enjoying the benefits of a better food system
so that local people and nature nourish each other and flourish together.
And three new core aims:
1. Developing long-term relationships
Focus on developing long-term relationships with and between people in our local area.
Why?
- To bring people together and share the joy of a better food system for health, wildlife and the climate and encourage more people to unearth the benefits that this brings
- To keep people in the better food ‘movement’ and ensure we lose as few people as possible by minimising transactional relationships (one time event attendees or one-off food orders) and encouraging people into our community long-term
2. Connecting food, farming and wildlife
Encouraging cross-pollination between different groups in our community and joining the dots between these three pillars.
Why?
- To recognise that all of these pillars are vital to a thriving food system and those connections are what we are uniquely placed to demonstrate as an organic, wildlife-friendly, community-owned, open farm and retailer
- To help people see and experience the full set of benefits of a better food system by encouraging them to engage with its full breadth
3. Enabling long-term change
Supporting people in establishing new behaviours around better food.
Why?
- To inspire people to make lasting, positive changes that will support their health, community, wildlife and the climate by spending time outdoors, on the land, and by buying fresh, organic produce
- To encourage more people to continue taking action for better food (giving time to volunteer, choosing to shop local, making time to visit a local farm) in recognition that food is cultural and habits are hard to break
These new aims will be built into our existing activities, as well as providing a focus for new projects and initiatives. Our community also gave further feedback and brought in other ideas and thoughts too.
Three key takeaways from our community consultation:
1. Inclusivity
“Our responsibility is to stay broad and funnel people into the movement”
As an organization set up to welcome people onto the land, we should aim to maintain mass market appeal, as well as actively ensuring that we are as inclusive as possible in what we do.
Whilst we recognize that there are systemic barriers to lots of people getting involved (inc. financial and feeling excluded from spaces like ours), looking to actively address these barriers through working in partnership with other organisations should remain a priority and is core to what we are trying to achieve.
There are also changes which we can make to the services, experiences and products we provide to help ensure we reach as many diverse people as possible:
- Exploring different ways of distributing food, including markets and food hubs. These could offer a lower price point and be more suitable for people living in flats, shared housing or simply not used to all the seasonal produce we put in our boxes
- Increasing the diversity in length, time and type of events we offer on the land
2. Food
“We demonstrate a whole alternative food system here, except for the eating, which is the most motivating bit.”
There was lots of discussion about how, at the farm, ‘the eating is missing’. Many people spoke about the strength of food in bringing people together and creating a sense of community and belonging. There was also lots of talk about the role that tasting freshly cooked, organic food can have in encouraging people to reconsider the food they buy, based on where and how it was grown.
Finding more opportunities to cook and share food on the land, from what we have grown together, was a strongly supported idea.
3. Growing community
“How can we strengthen the feeling of community? The emotional connection, loyalty, in-this-together, all contributing in different ways, emotionally invested - sense of belonging”
There is (and always will be) more we could do to grow the sense of community around the organization and many people are keen to find new ways to build connections between diverse people in the local area, through the farm. For the benefit of the people involved, as well as a way of getting more people to support a better food system.
Some of the ideas that were well supported, included:
- Creating more opportunities and physical spaces on the land for people to interact with each other
- Bringing people together around shared meals
- Providing more opportunities to share recipes and lifts with each other
- Offering more diverse events and activities on the land
Possible new projects
We are now exploring possible new projects to take on at the farm. These are just seeds of ideas at this stage, but watch this space!
- Building a new community kitchen & dining area
- Website redevelopment to encourage more people onto the land, more often
- Getting more food into our community through markets and hubs
- Reaching new people & groups through more of a focus on wildlife at the farm
- Exploring a new farming project which builds strength and diversity into our operations
Our next steps
We will be looking to enact and take on board many of these suggestions and changes, with immediate effect, but part of being an ever-evolving organization which responds to the needs of the community and the food system, means recognising that things are constantly in flux. So we will continue to keep our ears to the ground and speaking with different local people and groups to adapt and grow over the coming months and years.
If you would like to add your voice to the discussion, please do get in touch with Tom or Kim.
