Here’s our press release for Community Shares launch this week:
Sutton Community Farm launched a Community Share Offer at their Harvest Festival event last Saturday. Over 100 people came to the farm for a celebration of the season’s harvest, with farm tours, music, cooking demos and games. The community share offer is an opportunity for the community to become co-owners in this exciting social enterprise.
Sutton Community Farm is a community-owned social enterprise on Little Woodcote Estate in Wallington. Since 2010, their 7-acre farm has been growing a wide range of vegetables that it supplies to local residents through its Veg Box scheme, as well as supplying restaurants in London.
As they grow food, they invite the local community to join in. As well as their regular cohort of volunteers, they have visits from local schools, disability colleges, probation services and businesses.
Their educational work is centred around food production, cooking and healthy lifestyles. They are also engaging with people off the farm, running after school and community cook clubs and community banquets through their Sutton People’s Kitchen project.
To help fund their next stage of expansion, Sutton Community Farm have launched a Community Share offer. With a minimum investment of £30, you can buy a share in the farm, becoming part of this exciting venture and help contribute to its growth. If you want to join in, learn how to grow vegetables or buy a share, please visit their website for more details: suttoncommunityfarm.org.uk.
Making Food Fair and Cultivating Community is what Sutton Community Farm do every day throughout the year – in sunshine and in rain, and Saturday’s Harvest Festival was a celebration of a year of hard work. With an abundant display of what the farm produces – a diverse and exciting variety of cut salad leaves, tomatoes, beans, peppers, kale and fresh herbs that would make any of our meals that bit tastier.
Samuel Smith, Manager of the farm said:
“Local food brings communities together in extraordinary ways. It’s a historic day for our farm as we launch community shares, continuing the story of a community coming together to increase local food provision and promote a new and exciting style of farming on London’s edges”.
The Mayor of Sutton and the local MP Tom Brake, were both there on Saturday to celebrate the launch of the share offer and enjoy the day.
Tom Brake MP said:
“Sutton Community Farm is a fantastic testament to the fact that it’s possible to grow food fairly and sustainably in our local community on the edge of the city, and supply local residents and businesses with their weekly supply of seasonal vegetables. Today’s event has shown me how the benefits of cultivating community really work and I wish them every success with their Community Share offer to help the farm grow to their next stage”.
If you would like to be a part of this exciting venture act quickly as the share offer is only available for a few months. For more details, visit www.suttoncommunityfarm.org.uk and to invest, visit: www.microgenius.org.uk/project/sutton-community-farm-36
Editors notes:
Sutton Community Farm is based on a previously unused 7 acre smallholding. It is a not for profit social enterprise and the largest community-owned Farm in London.
The Farm was set up by the local community in 2010 in response to a need for local, fresh food, employment and skills. Their mission goes beyond increasing local, sustainable food supply. The farm provides an inclusive, shared space for the community to cultivate skills. By engaging with the Farm, people learn more about where their food comes from and participate in growing it, increasing their skills and confidence, while keeping active. Over 1,500 volunteers have helped to bring the land back into use. A third of our volunteers are unemployed and many come to gain experience and improve their health and wellbeing. As such, the farm has become a lifeline for many.
In the coming years, the farm aims to continue developing as a community amenity while demonstrating a model of sustainable farming that is economically and environmentally viable.
The vegetables are available to the local community throughout the year through the Veg box scheme, with different sizes of boxes filled with whatever the season has to offer at the time. That might be pumpkins in the autumn, peas and sweetcorn in the summer, root vegetables through the winter, salads and herbs throughout the year. For more details and how to order, visit their website.
As well as showing what great fresh produce the farm grows, the Harvest Festival event also showed what fun it was to be involved in the farm, with many new friendships made. There were games for the children, cooking demonstrations, farm tours, music, examples of how the farm is run sustainably, and with a pizza oven constantly busy it was evident that the farm provides a lot more than fresh, local food.
The farm has ambitious plans to grow, offering vegetable boxes to more people in the local area, and also starting to produce other products from the farm – jams, honey, juice drinks. Proving that it is still possible to farm sustainably, they also have detailed plans to make the farm carbon positive, and more water efficient with rainwater collection.
Contact
Samuel Smith, Managing Director, sam@suttoncommunityfarm.org.uk
Tel: 07722 156097 General e-mail: info@suttoncommunityfarm.org.uk
Twitter:@suttonfarm F: facebook.com/suttonfarm
