The Community Patch project was started, as all good stories are, by a desire to change the way we live. A small group of friends with experience of grassroots organising, and who shared a passion for growing good food (and eating it), got together to bounce around some ideas for things to help their community. The ideas started rolling, and gradually (many wild dreams later) a plan formed. This plan would become part of the global food revolution, redistributing power from the hands of the global megacorps into the hands of communities across the world.

 

At least, that’s the dream. In reality, we know that it’s taking small groups, growers, and farms like this all over the world, led by the people, to change the way we grow, sell, and eat food. But we’re a starting point for a little town in rural Somerset - and we’re ambitious enough to make a big impact here, to help all of you reading this (and many more!) in our mission to improve our food systems. Yay!

The cost of living/profit crisis is creating the worst recession in over 40 years, which means that on top of current pressures created by Brexit and the Covid 19 Pandemic, people are feeling the financial squeeze more than ever, and will continue to feel it for years to come. There is already very little access to good, locally sourced, healthy food for people, but with prices rising ever higher, buying according to nutrition and source is often out of the question. The cheaper foods that are currently available to people who have to budget their food spending are often more processed, high in salt and sugar, and low in nutritional value, further exacerbating the health and obesity crisis in this country, particularly among children.

 

The UK’s food system has been dominated for many decades by agribusinesses and supermarkets, leading to industrialisation and monopolies that force out smaller producers and sellers. These processes result in an eye watering amount of food waste. Supermarkets dominate the food retail industry, pushing out local businesses and creating fewer jobs than are lost. While we recognise that supermarkets currently offer a way for people to access cheaper food, we also understand that a healthy, resilient food system incorporates local businesses, healthier food, and community-owned means of production.

 

Community assets all over the country are being forced to close down, due to the pandemic, Brexit, and other external pressures. In order to build community wealth and create resilience against further crises, it is important to invest in community assets and projects to strengthen relations between residents and create a connection between people and places. A huge part of our culture has been shaped around food, and due to a general homogenisation led in large part by supermarkets and agribusinesses selling largely the same foods, our gastronomic culture has been diluted. In a society that is so isolated and disparate, community spaces where people can connect over a shared love of food are needed more than ever.

 

On top of all of these pressures caused by a fragile and industrial food system, we are facing the biggest threat to living species on this planet - in large part caused by this food system - and we need to establish solid community growing projects to ensure that we are able to feed people in an ever growing social and ecological crisis. By using agroecology and organic practices, we will not only improve the biodiversity of the land, we will be using a model that can be replicated across the country to improve food security in the oncoming crises.

Our aim, as the Community Patch Project, is to build up a network of small community patches across the local area (Wincanton, Bruton, Castle Cary, etc) - and hopefully beyond into the rest of Somerset - to create a patchwork of growing projects that provide natural, local, healthy produce to local residents and businesses.

 

We want to empower people and communities to take hold of the means of production, to grow their own food, and to be part of a resilient food system. We want to put a focus on the local so we can start to think global, and by growing on our doorsteps we are providing spaces for people to connect over something so crucial to our survival as humans (eating food) and that reminds us of our cultures as a society. We want to teach people how sustaining ourselves doesn’t have to come at a cost to wildlife, that there are sustainable and productive ways to grow food that don’t damage ecosystems or alter biodiversity, and that humans are nature too, that we can re-learn how to be part of it without destroying it.

 

• To provide spaces to grow fruit and vegetables for communities
• To collectively learn, in real time and on the ground, about issues of food sovereignty, local food systems, and how to grow food
• To improve and maintain biodiversity on our sites
• To provide a space for our communities to meet and grow
• To enhance wellbeing through growing food and being part of nature

Principles

• We collectively learn through the exchange of knowledge about how to grow food
• We grow food for people, not for profit
• We are part of nature, as are our food systems - we rely on the thriving biodiversity to survive
• We are run by volunteers who share a vision for a better future and who understand that grassroots change gets results

Values

• Democracy - we engage everyone in decision-making and welcome all opinions and ideas
• Internationalism - we work on a local level as part of a global movement, in solidarity and in practice
• Feminism - we believe in equality for all genders and try to empower more marginalised people in learning new skills and leading others in different tasks
• Anti-capitalist - we see a better future where people thrive as part of communities and of nature and our planetary systems are not being destroyed by endless growth and expansion

Aims

• To set up self-sufficient growing projects to feed residents of the areas
• To welcome volunteers from far and wide to grow food together
• To feed as many mouths as possible with nutritious and delicious food
• To grow food using organic and agroecological methods