Establishing and supporting the Campy Growers food-growing garden with staff and facilities to build resilience into the future.
Campy Growers
Go To WebsiteAddressed Challenges:
- Health and Wellbeing
- Food Security and Supply
- Carbon Emissions
- Biodiversity Loss
Action Areas:
- Biodiversity and Nature
- Land Use, Food and Agriculture
Initiative Purpose:
- Mitigation and Adaptation
The Story
Campy Growers is the largest community growing space in Dundee, covering 8 acres, with the potential to produce significant amounts of fresh food. Campy Growers have taken over the Council’s nursery space and have been gradually transforming the compacted, sterile soil into a fertile and productive food garden. This project is the culmination of community growing initiatives across the city that have built themselves and a collaborative network up for Dundee to become a leading exemplar of urban agriculture. Dundee City Council’s decision to close their plant nursery led to the formation of a group to pass the land on to as well as funding for a building to be constructed on site.
Alongside the main production of fresh veg, we offer workshops and experiences leading to behaviour change such as household composting, reducing waste and understanding food and ecological systems. The activity of growing food offers people the chance to take exercise, reduce stress and get fresh air whilst the harvest increases access to fresh and healthy fruit and vegetables. We use organic principles and try to preserve and enhance the biodiversity on site. This is not a short-term, one-off project but a means to establish future resilience in the food system, help people to grow their own healthy food and to reduce carbon emissions. We aim to change our food culture to become more sustainable and health-giving.
Success & Outcomes
During the course of this project, the charity moved into a building and made it functional as a community resource, quadrupled the growing space and became a well-known, respected organisation. Alongside the growth of the Community Growing Network, Campy Growers have become the go-to people for advice and skills development when people want to start producing their own food!
Some positive feedback from members of the community:
“I feel I have learned a lot from the staff along the way. It has been nice looking back on all the learning and activities. I feel a good sense of belonging to Campy”
“ I love coming every week to get vegetables. I know I seem to take a lot but I distribute to my 7 neighbours. They can’t really walk so having this is amazing for them. Thank you. ”
“I now know how to make that little extra difference to the taste of my cooking. This has been a wonderful experience for me. Thank you”.
“I love working with Campy Growers and we have a great relationship, It enables the use of fresh ingredient. Long may it continue !” - The Roundhouse kitchen
“It was an excellent meal, with lovely company! Highly recommend and will be returning! What a fantastic resource for the community to learn and gain skills from.” - Cooking group participant
Advice for others looking to do something similar
Campy Growers could base their structures on tried and trusted systems from a similar, well-established organisation (like the MAXwell Centre). There was a lot of external momentum and support given to us, coupled with the expertise within our committee.
It felt risky but we knew this was a unique opportunity to get the organisation up and running quickly. The Land-Workers' Alliance was/is a great inspiration, focused on the climate and ecological impact of food growing as well as social justice issues. Along the way, we used all our contacts, networks, joined open events to create more connections and offer the possibility for those organisations to visit us.
Our staff team has a great amount of gardening, community engagement knowledge that we are happy to share and work with other organisation towards new projects. We work in collaboration and not competition with others which is to us the best way forward.
Another tip is to prioritise your tasks/projects because even if it is tempting, we can’t achieve everything as once and the growing season will take up an important amount of time to staff and volunteers. It was what we focused on: growing, production, distribution ... It’s a good idea to have a base for your organisation before you start and allow – or get extra staff - to deal with the admin side of the funding. (report, finance, receipts).
