SPAN

Sustainable Production In Active Neighbourhoods

Background:

The SPAN partnership project began in 2005 and was set up to investigate ways of improving support and information services to community groups, so that more local people will become involved in food production and consumption in their neighbourhoods.

The partnership of five national organisations - Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens, Community Composting Network, Garden Organic (Henry Doubleday Research Association), the Permaculture Association and the Women's Environmental Network - was funded by by Defra's Environmental Action Fund. 

SPAN worked with 10 pilot projects, deliberately selected to include a range of urban and rural groups, those active in food growing or who wanted to start, as well as a mixture of new and established groups. They were all give a lead facilitator, who helped them access relevant specialist advice, training and resources.

Pilot projects:

1. Apple Cause, Northamptonshire
2. Aylesham Neighbourhood Project, North Kent
3. Easton Community Garden Project, Bristol
4. Exbourne Local Food Initiative, Devon
5. Growing People, near Barnsley
6. LEAF, Sheffield
7. Marsh Farm, near Luton
8. Tinsley Tree Project, Sheffield
9. Waltham Forest Food Hub Project, London
10. Windmill Allotment Project, Margate

Learning from the experiences of the pilots was captured through the facilitator network and a SPAN gathering brought everyone together to identify how other community groups could benefit in the future.

 

Conclusions:  

The SPAN initiative discovered that when people are empowered to be part of the production and distribution of their own food, they will often take further action that improves the local area. In addition, many people become interested in tackling wider environmental issues such as climate change.

SPAN also discovered that local community groups genuinely need the support and services provided by national organisations like FCFCG.  

A commitment from local, regional and national policy makers and funders to help sustainable food initiatives was also needed in several key areas such as hands-on support and access to land, the SPAN partners concluded.

 

Manifesto:

A manifesto called 'From the ground up' has been produced as a result of the SPAN partnership programme. The manifesto aims to inspire wider recognition of the positive impact of community food growing.

You can download a copy of the manifesto from our website, using the link below. Please note this is a large file document which may take some minutes to download on slower connections. 

 Span Manifesto

 

Visit http://www.spanpartnership.org.uk for further information.  

 

 

Partners

Federation of City Farms & Community Gardens
The GreenHouse
Hereford Street, Bristol BS3 4NA
Tel: 0117 923 1800
Fax: 0117 923 1900
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Web: www.farmgarden.org.uk

Permaculture Association UK
Permaculture Association (Britain)
London, WC1N 3XX
Tel: 0845 4581805
Fax: 0113 230 7461
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Web: www.permaculture.org.uk  

Women's Environmental Network
PO Box 30626, London, E1 1TZ
Tel: 020 7481 9004
Fax: 020 7481 9144
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Web: www.wen.org.uk

Community Composting Network
67 Alexandra Road, Sheffield
South Yorkshire, S2 3EE
Tel: 0114 258 0483
Fax: 0114 258 0483
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Web: www.communitycompost.org

Garden Organic (HDRA)
Ryton Organic Gardens,
Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Coventry,
Warwickshire,
CV8 3LG
Tel: 02476 303 517
Fax: 02476 639 229
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Web: www.gardenorganic.org.uk