Food Sovereignty - “The right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. Food sovereignty puts those who produce, distribute and eat food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations”. La Via Campesina
As new entrant small-scale growers we’re very aware that for multiple reasons the food that we grow isn’t readily accessible to all. We also recognise that local organic produce often carries an image of being expensive, inaccessible and irrelevant even.
BUT here at Springtail we believe that the food we grow only really has meaning and a future if it can be eaten by all who want and need it. Therefore, accessibility must be rooted within our growing and selling practices to the point that it tangibly drives what we do, making good food accessible to as many people as possible within our community.
This year we are excited to have applied for and been awarded funding from The National Lottery Community Fund and Farming Futures Fund in connection with The Landworkers Alliance, Community Supported Agriculture Network & Independent Food Aid Network. This funding will enable us to run a pilot project with a core aim of minimising the barriers that people may experience in accessing our produce, focusing on increasing access to our produce for those facing food insecurity. Further, this project is intentionally rooted in a move away from the current food bank model and instead toward creating localised and reliable supply chains that ensure access to fresh food, directly from producer to consumer in a way that empowers and nourishes all those involved.
Our project will begin by supplying vegetables and other products from the farm including; cheese, apple juice and flowers on a sliding financial scale. The reach of these sliding scale payments will, we hope, be lengthened by payments made by customers earning higher incomes, who feel able to contribute financially from a place of mutual aid and solidarity, thus enabling us to offer produce to more people facing food insecurity and further expanding the reach of this work.
As part of this project, produce will be available weekly throughout the season via two main routes:
Subsidised Veg Boxes
How Does It Work? – If you are struggling financially then you can sign up for our subsidised weekly veg box, delivered to your door, each week on a Saturday morning for the 30 week season. (Limited spaces available).
There are two sizes of veg box you can choose from, and they are available on a sliding scale to the amount you feel you’re able to pay.
Subsidised Market Credit
How Does it Work? – Much like the veg box above, if you are struggling financially then you can sign up for our market credit. This differs from the veg box as you need to be able to come to the Bridport Saturday market where you can choose the produce you’d like using market credit, again available on a sliding financial scale, according to what you feel able to pay. (Limited spaces available).
There’s more…
Community Meal
As part of the Community Resilience Project we hope to offer several community meals for all Springtail customers; both veg box customers and market customers. The format of these meals will of course depend on Coronavirus restrictions.
We really believe that food is made that much better when shared and enjoyed in the company of others. Having been involved in community meals in the past we have learnt how vital they can become to a community - not only for the food that they provide, but for the company, conviviality and solidarity also. We will be in contact with proposed dates and requests for volunteers to help cook, organise and serve closer to the time.
Farm Visits
Knowing where our food comes from, understanding how it is grown and the people and land behind it is vital. At least, it really transformed the way we at Springtail think about food!
We will be planning farm visits for those who are interested. Likewise, while we do not currently take on volunteers we are open to this and further, to working out ways to facilitate volunteers. However, please don’t just turn up to the farm – it’s on private land and we’re keen to respect this. Get in touch if you’re interested in volunteering, and we’ll see where we can go from there.
Cookbook
As we’ve said previously we are not only passionate food growers but very keen cooks and eaters also. We understand that it’s hard to be wholly inspired by what to cook all the time, so each week we will try to provide a recipe for inspiration.
We’d also really like to document the meals we all make throughout the season – both the triumphs and the inevitable failures. So, we’ll be nudging you for your recipes, stories of food, pictures and or drawings. These could either be back-of-the-envelope style recipes or meticulously tried and tested recipes – we’re open to all! We will be collating all these recipes, stories, pictures and drawings into a cookbook zine which will be available for anyone to buy at a small price toward the end of the season.
Springtail Solidarity Payments
Although we’ve been granted this funding, and that allows us to make a step in the right direction, there’s a whole lot more we feel we could do.
If you have been reading this page and feel that you’re someone who wants to and is able to financially contribute toward this project, enabling more people facing food insecurity to access our produce, then we’re creating a way for you to make solidarity payments – either as one off payments or regular payments that go toward funding and increasing the reach of this project.
We recognise that income fluctuates and that personal finances can be precarious for many of us. This has been heightened during the Coronavirus pandemic, and as self-employed growers we are very accustomed to the yo-yo like nature of a volatile income, meaning that we are sometimes more able to offer financial support than at other times and that is why it will be possible to donate in solidarity as a one off or as and when you feel able to during the season.
Solidarity payments will be put toward subsidising additional items for lower income households in the form of solidarity shares. They will also go toward helping us fund the community meals and any associated costs with farm visits and the co-created cookbook.
We are not short of ideas and dreams for taking this further, so any payment big or small is of course much appreciated.
If you would like to know more about any of the above, please don’t hesitate to email us at springtailers@gmail.com.
Please spread the word about this project.
