one year on... - Islington Council

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A summary of what has been achievedThis section briefly compares what Edible Islingtoninitially set out to achieve with the project’s actualachievements.What did Edible Islingtonset out to achieve?(Objective)What has Edible Islington actually achieved?To increase the numberof food growing sitesacross the boroughEdible Islington helped set up over 100 food growing projects acrossIslington. These included:• a community allotment at Pollard Close with 27 new plots;• a large community garden at St Luke’s Community Centre;• 22 estate based projects which included social housing estates,housing estate garden sharing schemes and sheltered housing;• more than 25 community open space based projects whichincluded community centres, communal gardens, private gardensharing and orchards;• more than four food growing areas in parks;• three therapeutic gardens for the vulnerable and disabled;• 47 food growing sites in schools, nurseries and children’s centres;• two food growing projects in universities.In addition, over 90% of these sites set up a rain water harvestingand/or composting system for the site to ensure resource efficiency.Responses from our large grant recipients al<strong>one</strong> estimated that4,767m 2 of land had been improved through the projects. This islikely to be a massive underestimate as 41 more projects were set upthrough small grants.See appendix A for a list of Edible Islington projects.To increase the numberof residents engaged infood growing throughcommunity engagementIt is estimated that over 5,000 residents have been engaged in foodgrowing through the Edible Islington project.Detailed data available for the large grant projects estimate that3,070 people were engaged in just these 64 projects. Of these,2,162 were said to be young people.Engagement was well represented across all ethnicity groupsincluding white, black/Caribbean, Chinese, Asian, mixed andother groups. However these numbers are likely to be highlyunderestimated as many projects were unable to estimate thenumbers their project had engaged and several reported that therewere “too many to count”.4
What did Edible Islingtonset out to achieve?(Objective)What has Edible Islington actually achieved?To enable schools toestablish their own foodgrowing programmeslinked to the nationalcurriculum and healthyschools initiative41 schools have been supported to establish their own food growingprogrammes through either large or small grants. These schools haveintegrated their growing work into their curriculum through varioussubjects and clubs including gardening, art, mathematics etc.In addition, six nurseries/childcare providers, three children’s centres,two universities and <strong>one</strong> college have also been supported to establishtheir food growing programmes. The Garden Classroom,an educational programme funded through Edible Islington,supported three schools over several months to do more foodgrowing and helped staff and children to integrate food growing intotheir work programme.In addition, an Edible Islington project run by Global Generation,an organisation that supports young people to play a part in creatinga sustainable future, engaged a large number of children fromschools, housing estates and hostels for the homeless in a foodgrowing project.To establish a continuingprogramme of foodgrowing support andresourcing promotingnetworking and skillssharing, ensuring longterm sustainabilityand legacyWe are immensely proud of what the Edible Islington projects haveachieved through the hard work, enthusiasm and commitment ofthe many groups involved. Although the funding has closed, we arekeen to ensure that the food growing projects set up continue to run,yielding a bumper harvest <strong>year</strong> on <strong>year</strong> and providing many hours offun and enjoyment.The Edible Islington Networking event held on 17 March 2011by Capital Growth, in partnership with Edible Islington, providedan opportunity for Edible Islington groups to network and attendworkshops on food growing issues. In addition, a number of toolshave been set up for Edible Islington groups to use for networkingand sharing skills, which we hope will ensure long term sustainabilityfor the project. These include the Islington Master GardenersProgramme, a map of Edible Islington sites and an Edible Islingt<strong>one</strong>-platform on the ‘Project Dirt’ website, for groups to communicatewith each other. More information on these and other supportavailable is outlined at the end of this report.By working in partnership with several projects and organisationsincluding Capital Growth, Groundwork, St Luke’s Centre and manyother local organisations, we have strived to ensure that Islingtonis part of, and fits in with, wider food growing programmes acrossLondon.5
Page 1 and 2: www.islington.gov.uk/edibleislingto
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Page 7 and 8: Ringcross Community CentreRingcross
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Page 22 and 23: Further Support forEdible Islington
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one year on... - Islington Council

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