Community food and growing projects

Across the UK, community food and growing projects are providing opportunities for local people to come together, improve the appearance of open spaces, eat healthily and stimulate new hyper-local food economies. The best known campaign is Incredible Edible, which started in Todmorden in West Yorkshire and has since spread to communities all over the world. The Incredible Edible Network now promotes the campaign, sharing resources and advice.

Community food enterprises are another area of support provided by the Plunkett Foundation. These are businesses run by communities for their benefit, which are involved in at least one part of growing, harvesting, processing, distributing, selling or serving local food. Examples include farmers’ markets, community-owned shops, community supported agriculture, country markets, food co-operatives and many others.

In Devon, HOGCo is a network of nearly 70 community food projects working with rural communities to support local food projects and help groups join together to develop skills, access land and create opportunities to grow their own food.