Overview
The Food Forest Project is an intersectional environmental charity seeking to tackle issues such as food poverty, habitat & biodiversity loss, access to safe green space, carbon sequestration, and soil health. Working with local landowners, and local communities in Somerset, the Food Forest Project designs and builds free, community assisted, regenerative agroecological schemes for local communities, to ensure people have access to free, organic produce that doesn’t cost the earth.
In the UK, it is estimated that 8.4 million people are living in food poverty (2022 figures), with 1 in 6 of us using a foodbank at some point in March 2022. At The Food Forest Project, they believe that this is unacceptable and are making it their mission to tackle food poverty in Somerset.
The Food Forest Project work with local landowners and communities to create community food-growing spaces to ensure that everyone has access to free, fresh, organic produce that doesn’t cost the Earth. Projects are planned to depend on the needs of the communities, and may be a food forest, or wild orchard, or perhaps food bank market gardens where volunteers grow organic produce for their local food bank, or even free community allotments.
Each project is designed with nature in mind, using only native and often heritage trees, shrubs, and seeds. Their projects help to create resilient communities, and resilient landscapes galvanising some of the key issues faced by society today.
The Food Forest Project is currently planning two projects that require infrastructure such as native orchard trees, water harvesting systems, compost, timber for raised beds, tools, seeds, and two sheds. Both projects are in areas of high deprivation.
The first is a free community allotment scheme in the city of Bristol for a community that’s in the top 10% of most deprived areas in the country. On average, men in this area live 10 years less than those in more affluent areas, over 50% of children live in poverty, and the area is nature depleted.
The second scheme is in Norton Radstock, an old mining town, where the Trussel Trust food bank is hugely oversubscribed. This project will be a community food forest with mixed native wild and domestic harvest fruit, and nut trees, berry & currant shrubs, and a variety of different herb bushes.
Being shortlisted is incredible. We are a small, high impact charity open to all voluntary sector leaders across South Yorkshire. Many of the charities we support are small or medium sized organisations, the smallest being a food bank and community larder operating from the founder’s own house.
Support for us means support for a wide range of diverse charities from across the region, resulting in a significant impact for a large number of communities and service users.
Martin Singer
