Capital Growth for borough councils

Capital Growth is aiming to support 2,012 new community food growing spaces in London, by the end of 2012.  In order to reach our target we are looking for commitment from as many borough councils as possible. 

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 would work with you to identify a more realistic commitment.

Boroughs already involved
We are very pleased to report that a number of boroughs have already committed to meeting their target of supporting 60 new projects by the end of 2012:

• Islington established the Edible Islington programme, offering grants to new growing spaces.  Capital Growth manages the small grants part of the programme
  
• Camden has launched its food strategy entitled ‘Good Food for Camden’.  One of the objectives listed in the document is to ‘provide support to the community in establishing new food growing sites with an aim of creating 60 sites as Camden’s contribution towards London’s Capital Growth target…’
  
• Lewisham launched its Community Growing Guide on 31st Oct, 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.
  
• 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.
  

What does a commitment mean?

The Commitment to Capital Growth 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 
  
• Supporting community food growing projects may tie in to borough Local Area Agreements
  
• 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 are already creating new growing spaces but are not listed above please let us know, as you might get additional support from Capital Growth. If you represent a London borough and want to explore the opportunities to create new growing spaces then please contact Sarah or Seb at Capital Growth to find out how your borough can get involved in the scheme:

capitalgrowth@sustainweb.org
020 7837 1228

Capital Growth is managed by London Food Link.  For a breakdown of all the support that London Food Link can provide for London Boroughs please download 'Food in your Borough' as a 454kb PDF.