Growing community out of the Pandemic - positive plans from Harlesden

 

The pandemic has taught us many lessons some of which point to a more positive future. Mutual Aid volunteers in Harlesden have identified a demand for fresh fruit and vegetables, a strong grasssroots desire for opportunities to connect  with and support one another and a recognition that community projects, gardening and interaction with nature are good for our physical and mental health.

Harlesden Town Garden have linked up with Mutual Aid to grow food for people who need it in the community. The food growing project is Brent-wide and organisers are currently looking for growing spaces and schools and community groups who would like to be involved.

Mutual Aid currently has a small plot in the Harlesden Town Garden and are also maintaining an allotment at the Longstone Avenue site where the plot holder is unable to maintain the plot during the pandemic.  They are currently looking for secure sites on which to grow food.

Contact details: info@harlesdentowngarden.co.uk 

Kensal Green Mutual Aid: LINK

@KGMutualAid  

Friends of Harlesden Town Garden are holding their Annual General Meeting on February 13th via zoom. They are looking for new committee members. If you wish to attend the AGM please email using the address above and you will be sent the link.

Self-managed allotments- local control or a cover for cuts?

Brent Council is holding a consultation meeting with allotment holders on 'Allotment Associations and Self-Management: The Future of Your Allotments?'  on March 2nd.

As part of the Food Growing and Allotment Strategy LINK tenants will be consulted on their views of self-management:

Councils across the UK are looking at different styles of management with the aim of running allotments more effectively. Having an Allotment Association os the first step to taking more ownership of your site and in its most extreme (sic) form, this means that Allotment Associations lease the sites from the Council and take on the full financial, administration and maintenance management of their sites.

In Brent one allotment site is already self-managed but other sites lack an Allotment Association.

Speakers include:

Richard King, Barnet Allotment Federartion on 'The Barnet experience'
Clare Fuchs, self-management in Hammersmith and Fulham
Richard Wiltshire, the National Allotment Society
Derek Osborne, Chair of the self-managed Old Kenton Lane Allotment Association

In my chats to fellow allotment holders there seems little appetite for self-management but I expect attitudes will vary across the borough.

'Full financial , adminstration and maintenance management' sounds like a considerable amount of work that will be transferred from council officers to volunteers.  Major maintenance such as control of trees, fencing and drainage will clearly be potentially very expensive although water bills, toilet lighting etc will be paid through regular rental income.

There are whole borough issues such as management of waiting lists where people may be interested in plots at more than one site and initiatives such as wildlife friendly gardening, sustainable and chemical free gardening, where the present Food Growing and Allotment Offfcer has performed a vital role, which would be lost if the post is abolished as a result of self-management.

I hope the meeting is well attended and the issues given a good airing.

Experienced food grower needed for St Raphael's Edible Garden Project

www.sufra-nwlondon.org.uk

Registered Charity No. 1151911

Growing Tutor

St. Raphael’s Edible Garden

Salary: £15/hour (negotiable)

Hours: Tuesday & Saturday Mornings (8 hours/week)

Responsible to: Director

Location: Stonebridge, London Borough of Brent

Are you passionate about growing your own vegetables?

Then this job is for YOU.

Sufra NW London is a local charity, which aims to confront the causes and effects of poverty in the local community. Our service revolves around the food bank, which collects and distributes 26 tonnes of donated food annually, supporting over 3,000 people each year.

The charity is soon to launch St. Raphael’s Edible Garden, a new food growing project on St. Raphael’s Estate. The charity has recently acquired a derelict site measuring over 500 square metres, which is currently being transformed into a communal growing facility for local residents.

In preparation for the launch of the project, we are looking to recruit an experienced gardener/food grower to lead the project and oversee a community growing club. The successful candidate will need to be able to inspire others and deliver both informal and structured training in horticulture.

For further information or to apply for this role, please submit a CV, Covering Letter (no more than 2 sides) and Equal Opportunities Form by email to admin@sufra-nwlondon.org.uk. The deadline for applications is Friday 28 August 2015.

The Edible Food Garden Site that awaits development

Job Description

Role

To oversee the development of St. Raphael’s Edible Garden, facilitate all growing activities and deliver informal and structured training in horticultural to local residents and beneficiaries of the project, including children, vulnerable adults and the disabled.

Main Duties & Responsibilities

·      Preparing a seasonal growing plan, in collaboration with local residents and volunteers;

·      Overseeing the delivery of two weekly growing clubs on Tuesday and Saturday mornings;

·      Engaging a wide range of regular and one-off volunteers, including school children, vulnerable adults, older people, faith groups and corporate/public-sector teams;

·      Delivering informal and accredited training in food growing and horticulture;

·      Undertaking inventories of tools, equipment and planting materials, and subsequent procurement of new supplies in a cost-efficient manner;

·      Maintaining existing growing infrastructure and developing new growing facilities in accordance with the overall vision of the site;

·      Supporting marketing, outreach and PR activities;

·      Compiling monitoring data relating to the project and project users, as required by funders;

·      Assisting in the general maintenance and cleanliness of the site.

Additional Duties

·      Undertaking any other reasonable duties to support the development of the project;

·      Working in collaboration with the Charity’s wider projects and in accordance with its ethos and values.

Person Specification

E = Essential / D = Desirable

A = Application / I = Interview / T = Test

Competency	Specification	E	D	A	I	T
Education	Relevant qualification in gardening or horticultural		ü	ü
Experience	Developing/Managing food growing projects	ü		ü	ü
	Tutoring, coaching and mentoring	ü		ü	ü
	Facilitating structured learning programmes		ü	ü	ü
	Working with vulnerable people	ü		ü	ü
	Organising projects, activities/events		ü	ü	ü
Knowledge	Landscaping or garden design		ü	ü	ü
	Food growing, composting and harvesting produce	ü		ü	ü
	Building raised beds and growing infrastructure	ü		ü	ü
Skills & Abilities	Good communication skills, both written and oral	ü		ü	ü
	Ability to work with others professionally	ü		ü	ü
	IT Literate (Microsoft Office)	ü		ü
	Heavy lifting		ü	ü
Attitude	Honest and trustworthy	ü		ü	ü
	Positive and hard-working	ü		ü	ü
	Commitment to the values of Sufra NW London	ü		ü	ü

The post is subject to a probationary period of 3 months.

Brent makes good progress on allotments and food growing

My Birchen Grove plot this morning

As the Farm Terrace alloment holders in Watford take legal action against Eric Pickles in a bid to save their plots LINK it seems a good time to review the state of allotments and allotment gardening in Brent.

The appointment of Vanessa Hampton as Food Growing and Allotment Officer and the updating of food growing strategies seems to have resulted in a much more proactive approach with issues such as uncultivated and over-grown plots being dealt with more efficiently.

In a letter to allottees Hampton reports:

• 91% of plots are let
• 99.6%of allotment plots are let or under offer
• 98.7% of plots are being cultivated (up from 92% last year)
• There have been extensive clearane to bring over 70 plots overgrown with invasive weeds back into cultivation
• From April 2013, over 15 metric tonnes of rubbish was clear from allotment sites
• She worked on sites with volunteers including 120 young adults from the Challenge Network, the Wembley Stadium Geen Team and Veolia Environmental Services
• Ongoing renovation of council-owned sheds and drainage improvement works at various sites

Vanessa is to be applauded on the progress she has made in a short time and it has been good to see visible progress on my own site at Birchen Grove. Previously uncultivated plots were left for a long time giving weeds and brambles a chance to get a real hold on them, making it harder to bring them back to cultivation and spreading weeds seeds all over neighbouring plots.

An uncultivated plot at Birchen Grove

Following in the steps of the gardening classes that have take place on the Metropolitan Housing allotments on Chalkhill Estate, Vanessa Hampton is running free master classes on 'Preparing Your Plot for Cultivation' for new or inexperienced tenants to help them 'get started on plot clearance and digging with confidence'.

She will show tenants how to transform their plot from 'grass to a productive food-growing area'. The classes are open to any plot holder, irrespective of where their plot is located are available on two dates at two different venues. They will be held regardless of weather conditions.

• Saturday 25th January 2014 from 11am-1pm Birchen Grove, Kingsbury NW9 8SE (Map showing location on entrance gate if you are late)
• Saturday 1st February 2014 from 11am-1pm at Gibbons Road allotment, Gibbons Road, Harlesden, NW10 9BR

Advance booking and tools not required but wear sturdy waterproof shoes and warm layered clothing.

Not so welcome of course is the annual increase in allotment fees. The proposed increases below are subject to the final decision of Full Council in February.

Brent Residents - Increase of 3% which raises rents from £81.11 annually for 5 poles to £83.50. Council owned sheds will increase by  4% to an annual rent of £22.50 (£21.63)

Non Brent Residents - Increase of 15% which raises rents from £81.11 to £93.30. Council owned sheds will increase by 16% to £25 (£21.63)

Community groups that serve mainly Brent residents will have the same increases as Brent residents.

However the concession for 'senior citizens' of a 50% discount on the first 5 poles will now start at the age of 60 for both men and women. Previously it was 65 for men and 60 for women.

Residents who receive unemployment benefit will  need to provide up to date proof of their status from the DWP or similar in order to receive the concessionary rate for 2014..

By the way, I still had a broad bean in flower out in the open on my plot today, December 29th...

For more on the Farm Terrace Campaign follow this LINK