At Growing Communities, we take your privacy very seriously. We’re committed to protecting personal information that you’ve shared with us when visiting our site, communicating electronically with us or coming to one of our events.

This Privacy Policy explains what happens to personal data that you choose to provide to us, or that we collect from you while you visit this site.

By using our websites you’re agreeing to be bound by this policy. 

To ensure that we communicate with our customers, volunteers and other interested parties through their preferred channels, and to enable us to share essential updates about the running of our services, we need to collect different types of information, including personal data. As controllers and processors of that data, we understand the trust placed in us when sharing data, and we will always do our utmost to respect that trust and protect personal information. 

Our full privacy policy is explained below, but here are some points to note: 

  • We will only ever ask for information that we really need.
  • We will put appropriate security measures in place to protect the personal data that you share.
  • We will never sell your data.
  • You have the right to amend or withdraw your consent about the ways in which we hold and use your personal data at any time. 

Information we collect

In running and operating our business we may collect and process certain data and information relating to you. This data and information is detailed below:

  • Anonymous data about details of visits to our website and the pages and resources that are accessed, including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data and other communication data that may assist us in understanding how visitors use this website.
  • Information that you provide to us by filling in forms on our website, such as when you contact us or join our veg scheme, including name, email address, telephone number and physical address.
  • Information provided to us via email, phone, letter, sign-up sheet or in person.  
  • Information provided to us when you apply for employment with us, or apply to volunteer, or contact us in another way.

Use of your information

The information we collect is used for our own use. In addition, we may use the information for the following purposes:

  • To provide you with essential information relating to our website, products or services that you request from us, chiefly the running of our fruit and veg scheme, to ensure you have all the information you need. We may do this using email, texting, phone calls and physical address.
  • To provide you with information on other goods or services that we feel may be of interest to you e.g. if we start selling another product.
  • To meet our contractual obligations to you.
  • To notify you about any changes to our website, including improvements, and service or product changes.
  • To notify you about Growing Communities’ activities.

We keep your personal information only for as long as required for the purposes for which it’s supplied. Where your information is no longer required, we will make sure it is disposed of in a safe and secure manner. Details of our data retention periods for the different types of personal data that we hold are held in our data protection procedures. 

We will never sell your data to a third party.

We may share your personal information when we are compelled to do so by a legal authority acting in compliance with the law.

Lawful grounds for processing data

  • Information is processed in line with a contractual relationship.
  • Information is processed on the basis of an individual’s consent.
  • Information is processed on the basis of legitimate interest.

Contractual relationships

If you are a member of our fruit and veg scheme, or a member of staff, you enter a contractual relationship with Growing Communities. We use your data (postal address, telephone number and email address) to give you essential information and updates about the running of the scheme and the organisation.

Consent

We will only send promotional material by email to those who have given consent, usually to send you updates on our projects. Occasionally, our promotional material may – for example – invite you to an event or promote items for sale.

Legitimate interests

Applicable law allows personal information to be collected and used if it is reasonably necessary for our legitimate activities. These are the following:

  • Employee and volunteer recording and monitoring for recruitment, safety, performance management or workforce planning purposes.
  • Physical security, IT and network security.
  • Processing for historical, research or statistical purposes.
  • Prevention of fraud, misuse of services or money laundering.
  • Enforcement of legal claims.
  • Responding to enquiries.
  • Providing 'thank you' communications and receipts.

Storing your personal data

We store your information securely. Information that we collect about members of the fruit and veg scheme is stored on a database hosted and managed by Growing Good Technology Ltd. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will always take all reasonable precautions to make sure that your data remains secure and is handled in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Data that is provided to us and Growing Good is held in a secure datacentre. All password data is encrypted. The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure and therefore we cannot guarantee the security of data sent to us electronically and transmission of such data is therefore entirely at your own risk.

We use Mailchimp to store email contact lists and to send emails to veg scheme members and other people who have given us consent. Their privacy policy is here.

We use Textmarketer to send text messages about the scheme to veg scheme members. Their information security statement is here.

Your financial data

Your financial data is not held by us but by our direct debit provider Go Cardless, whose privacy policy is here, and our card payment provider Stripe, whose privacy policy is here.

Third-party links

You may find links to third-party websites on our website. These websites should have their own privacy policies which you should check. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for their policies whatsoever as we have no control over them.  

Cookies

As is common practice with almost all professional websites this site uses cookies, which are tiny files that are downloaded to your computer to improve your experience. It is recommended that you leave cookies on.

You can disable cookies by adjusting the settings on your browser (see your browser help for how to do this). Be aware that disabling cookies may affect the functionality of this and other websites that you visit. 

This site uses Google Analytics to help us understand how you use the site and ways that we can improve your experience. These cookies may track things such as your IP address, geographical location, browser type, referral source, how long you spend on the site and the pages that you visit so we can continue to produce engaging content.
We also use social media buttons and/or plugins on this site that allow you to connect with your social network in various ways. For these to work, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram will set cookies through our site which may be used to enhance your profile on their site or contribute to the data they hold for various purposes outlined in their respective privacy policies.

Seeing your data and withdrawing your consent

You can request to see the data we hold about you by contacting us.

Where you give us consent to process your data we will keep a clear record of how and when this consent was obtained. You can withdraw your consent at any time, or request that all your personal data be deleted by contacting us.

Changes to this policy

It’s likely that we’ll need to update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We’ll notify veg scheme members via email of any significant changes, but you’re welcome to come back and check it whenever you wish.

This policy was last revised in May 2018 to comply with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations 2018.

Contacting us

If you have any questions relating to this Privacy Policy, contact us.

Our postal address is: The Old Fire Station, 61 Leswin Road, London N16 7NX

We can be reached by phone +44 (0)20 7502 7588. 

Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted via the above address or phone number or by email.