Our approach to urban food growing

At Growing Communities we use our box scheme to trade urban produce in order to encourage and facilitate productive urban food growing. Currently, around 5% of the vegetables we sell through the box scheme come from our urban sites.

We have two approaches to this: 

• Subsidised production: Growing Communities employes a grower and assistant grower (for 4 days a week in total).   Ultimately, we want our market gardens to be able to cover their direct costs through sales of  produce.  Last year we generated over £10,000 from sales of produce from our 0.5 acres of urban market gardens which got us around 50% of the way, so while we still have some to go, the box scheme subsidises our urban food growing and enables us to continue employing growers while we work to increase our productivity.  
• Pay as you Grow:  For the urban growers who work on our Patchwork Farm, we’ve adopted a different approach - growers are paid directly for the produce they grow in the same way that all our other farmers are paid for produce they supply to the box scheme. 

The first approach requires external funding if  you are to employ people to get your own growing up and running. When that funding ends, it is possible (likely?) that the food growing will need to be cross-funded from the box scheme or other income generating activities if it is to continue.

The second approach is more entrepreneurial  in flavour and means that the box scheme can concentrate on its own  financial viability,  without the additional financial ‘burden’ of having to find funds to cross subsidise the food growing.   It also provides a mechanism for paying other urban growing projects in the area which may have a different emphasis,  but who have surplus produce it would benefit them to sell through a box scheme.

Both approaches have different costs and benefits and we continue to explore and develop our thinking in this area.  

>> Find out more about how you can take part.