Frequently asked questions

1. What is Capital Growth going to do?
   
2. How can I get involved?
   
3. Is Capital Growth linked to the Olympics?
   
4. What are the criteria for food growing spaces helped under Capital Growth?
   
5. How can Capital Growth help?
   
6. What is the definition of a new food growing space?
   
7. How much funding/support is my space eligible for?
   
8. What about existing spaces – is there any support for us?
   
9. What is there to stop these spaces from only be used temporarily to grow food, and then being used for something else?

1. What is Capital Growth going to do?
We offer support to new community food growing spaces, representing a diverse range of projects, boroughs, types and sizes of land, and community groups. We will work with local authorities, housing associations and other landowners, making under-used land available to growers, and to communities interested in growing food. Our aim is to create 2,012 new food growing spaces for London by the end of 2012. 
 
2. How can I get involved?
There are many ways to get involved in this exciting new campaign. See the menu on the left for ideas of ways you can benefit and help. You can also join the Capital Growth mailing list by clicking here, so that you can be kept up-to-date with the latest developments. 
 
3. Is Capital Growth linked to the Olympics?
There is no official link to the Olympic Games being held in London in 2012. Just as the world’s focus turns to London in 2012, we have the opportunity to send out a vital message about the benefits of growing our own food as part of a sustainable food system.

In 2007, a report on Feeding the Olympics was published jointly by Sustain, the Soil Association and the New Economics Foundation. It challenged the organising bodies for the Olympic Games to champion sustainable food as part of the commitment to being the 'greenest games yet'. In this report, the idea was raised of a pledge to create 2,012 new food growing spaces for London. London Food Link, part of Sustain, has now taken up this challenge with the support of the London Development Agency, the Mayor Boris Johnson, the Mayor's food advisor Rosie Boycott and many partner organisations shown on the Links page.

The idea was also inspired by the Vancouver Food Policy Council's '2010 Challenge' for 2,010 New Community Shared Garden Plots by 2010.

4. What are the criteria for food growing spaces helped under Capital Growth?
More detailed explanations of the criteria will be available in the application process. Below are the outline criteria for new food growing spaces:

• The space should be used for growing food, and be of a reasonable size so that a decent amount of food can be grown (not just a window box!). 
• The space should be located within one of the London boroughs.
• The space should have been created since 1st January, 2009 or, if it was started before this date, it should be expanded to be accepted for Capital Growth support
• The food-growing project should benefit the local or wider community. Whilst we support the principle of growing food solely for commercial or private benefit, for a space to be eligible for financial and other support under the Capital Growth campaign, it must also have clear benefit to the community. We are, however, interested in hearing from communities who might like to develop local food trading or bartering schemes. If in doubt, get in touch.

5. How can Capital Growth help?
We are offering all types of in-kind/financial support to assist people in setting up a project and to support their progress:

• We have just closed our most recent round of small grants and are planning a further round very soon. 
• We are approaching organisations for equipment/services to donate to the new community food growing spaces.  For example, we are delighted to have teamed up with Duchy Originals, who are providing free organic seeds to all new Capital Growth projects, as well as a further 1/3 discount on their seed range.  We are also very pleased to have teamed up with tool supplier Fiskars, who are offering Capital Growth spaces a limited supply of free gardening tools for their projects.  
• We are developing opportunities to support spaces with horticultural and enterprise training. 
• We run network events for the spaces we support, giving you the opportunity to meet, and learn from, other projects and community food growing experts in London
• We have a number of project support volunteers on hand to assist you with your projects.

6. What is the definition of a new food growing space?
This project is looking to support spaces that are being used to grow food for the first time, since 1st January, 2009 or, if it has been used for this purpose before this date it should be expanded.  The space should benefit a community, rather than an individual. We would like to support spaces of all different sizes, including (but not limited to) roof gardens, land around housing estates, underused verges, utility land or disused plant nurseries. This is why, as part of our campaign for 2,012 new growing spaces, we are opening this to virtually anything, as long as it’s producing food. The notable exception is we are not including people turning their own gardens over to food production.  As much as we support this, we recommend you contact Food Up Front if you are looking for help of this kind. We are, however, keen to support in some way those people who are approaching other people to put their gardens into use, and have been working with the Landshare team to help facilitate Londoners to do this.

7. How much funding/support is my space eligible for?
Click here for details of support available.  We have just closed our recent small grants application round and are planning another one very soon.

8. What about existing spaces – is there any support for us?
At the moment the support available is only for new spaces but we can also support existing spaces that are looking to expand.  The space can also be managed by existing growing groups. Over the coming months, we hope to be able to offer other forms of support, some of which will be open to existing growing groups. In the meantime, you can also keep up to date with the Capital Growth project by joining the mailing list here.

If you have a wider interest in urban food growing issues, you may wish to sign up to our urban agriculture e-newsletter, which circulates information about events, research and news on urban food growing (it's not just London, but UK-wide and sometimes international). Write to anna@sustainweb.org, saying "Please sign me up to your urban agriculture newsletter".
 
9. What is there to stop these spaces from only being used temporarily to grow food, and then being used for something else?
Of course, we are not in a position to be prescriptive about land use changing. We will ask applicants to give an assessment of the likelihood of the land being available for food growing over a reasonable period for food production - preferably at least several years. However, some sites are only available temporarily. But they are still worth putting into production for a short period, as long as the growers are aware of this from the start. If a site isn’t bound by such restrictions, we would encourage those who are managing the growing to secure some agreement with the landowner for growing to take place on the site for a reasonable period e.g. at least 5 to 10 years.