Capital Growth is a partnership initiative between London Food Link, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson, and the Big Lottery's Local Food Fund.
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Borough Councils
Eighteen borough councils have so far signed up to support Capital Growth.
What can London Borough’s do to get involved?
Capital Growth is seeking a commitment from each borough that new community growing projects will be supported. In order to reach the 2,012 target this means on average that each borough will commit to supporting 60 new spaces. We appreciate that for some this may be too many, in which case we work with the council to identify a more realistic commitment.
What does committing to Capital Growth mean?
It is a way of showing that your borough is behind the idea of increasing food growing spaces in your area. This does not mean you are committing to setting up and funding these spaces, but the Capitial Growth team will work with you to identify what opportunities there are for your borough to faciliate the development of new spaces. This may be through auditing and identifying land, publicising the project or including food growing into existing services and projects.
What’s in it for the Boroughs?
- In most areas of London allotment waiting lists are years long. Helping Capital Growth will also help to shorten these lists by providing alternative space for the local community to grow food together
- Apart from providing access to local, nutritious and affordable food, food growing has many wider benefits including increasing social cohesion, improving mental health and improving the local landscape.
Next steps
If you represent a London borough that hasn't already signed up to Capital Growth and want to explore the opportunities to support new growing spaces then please download the document below to find out more:
Borough Councils Commitment - Download as Word Doc
What are committed Borough Councils doing?
Here's a summary of what some of the committed boroughs are up to:
Camden launched ‘Good Food for Camden - the healthy and sustainable food strategy’ in 2009. One of the key aims was to ‘provide support to the community in establishing new food growing sites'. The 65 current sites exceeds the Capital Growth target of 60 sites by 2012. A significant development of the good food action plan has been to create a Good Food Guide, the first of its kind in the UK and form the Good Food Partnership, which has over 175 members. www.camden.gov.uk/food or join the partnership at www.projectdirt.com/page/camden-gfp
Greenwich has the aim to create 35 new growing spaces which will partner with 25 existing projects to create 60 growing spaces to support Capital Growth. Since its launch in October 2009, Growing Greenwich has delivered training and grown food on 24 sites across the borough and has delivered training in 7 residential homes and 4 housing estates.
Hackney has already exceeded this with 65 Capital Growth sites. It has supported The Robin Hood Garden in Springfield Park, providing an area of disused land in the park to a new food growing user group. It has also provided a small disused square to Transition Town Stoke Newington to set up two community food growing beds.
Haringey is currently developing a Sustainable Food Strategy due to be launched later this year. An online map is also in development to show residents where their nearest growing spaces are and Haringey hopes to encourage 60 new growing spaces in contribution to the Capital Growth target.
Islington has supported 96 new food growing spaces to date through its Edible Islington programme. 68 of which are registered with Capital Growth. This has seen the development of a new council allotment on a disused car park. Edible Islington is being developed alongside Islington’s food strategy. www.islington.gov.uk/food
Kensington & Chelsea Over 20 community kitchen gardens have been developed, which have transformed underused or neglected pockets of land into local food growing spaces. The kitchen gardens consist of raised wooden planters and allow local residents to grow a wide range of fresh produce for free. http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/
Kingston Upon Thames pledged to support 25 new community food growing projects by the end of 2012. The council is developing a list of potential growing spaces to be allocated within its greens spaces and wayside gardens. Support materials have been developed, including a guide for schools http://www.kingston.gov.uk/rbk_growing_ideas_booklet_lowres.pdf and a sustainable gardening guide for the general public http://www.kingston.gov.uk/sustainable_gardening_for_web.pdf
Lambeth's Sustainability Unit is supporting food growers through its Green Community Champions programme, and has launched a networking group called Incredible Edible Lambeth. It is developing a map of food-growing spaces and provides access to resources such as free compost from the council's waster contractor. Lambeth has committed to developing 60 new food growing spaces by 2012.
Lewisham launched its Community Growing Guide in 2009. At the launch, Sir Steve Bullock, Mayor of Lewisham, announced their commitment to supporting the Capital Growth scheme by supporting 60 new community food growing projects in the borough by the end of 2012.
Tower Hamlets has committed to supporting 60 spaces. It has funded a range of food growing projects as part of its Healthy Borough Programme. To support these projects they invited them to an induction day to help them plan their activities. TH are also working in partnership with Capital Growth and the Women's Environmental Network to set up a borough wide network.