Will you fund the Carrot Committee?

Carrot Committee Man. Artist: Peyton Harrop © 2019

Yes, I seriously sprained my ankle watering my plot at the community garden.  As a hobby/sport/pastime/survival/moneysaving/social activity growing veggies is not extreme.  But there is a risk every time we enter the garden. Or chose not to grow our own veggies.   Not brain damage risk like football or rugby, or ACL like netball, but risks just the same.  Community gardens must maintain their sites for the safety of gardeners and visitors alike, but who funds them and harvests the rewards?  

 

The frustrations of being laid up and unable to till my plot and get the last of the summer veggies in gave me time to think.  Now that’s bad for me.  Good for you as you get to hear what’s on my mind.  Scary I know – I promise not to go too deep!

 

Recently a volunteer from a charity came to me about the possibility for some of their clients to visit the community garden with the hope that it will help them on their journey to one day lead a good life.  The volunteer’s request is not isolated.  More and more people from various organisations and groups have the expectation that the community garden can, and will, somehow be the miracle that catches the most vulnerable in our society from falling through the cracks.

 

Here's the reality at the community garden – nearly all of the garden members are there to stop themselves from falling through the cracks and are limited in their capacity to support charity organisations and individuals with complex needs in the garden space.

 

Yes the community garden believes that social gardening in a community space - learning to grow edible food, to cook it, share it, or socially connect around it, has an important role to play in improving the communities mental, physical and emotional health and wellbeing, and will help regenerate our environment.  That food security and food literacy (one of 13 points of local and state governments social determinate of health in their Municipal Health and Wellbeing plans and Act) are key to digging our community out of the climate, energy and health crises we are careering towards.  And urban agriculture supporters have acknowledged that community gardens are an important educational and social location to empower and support communities to skill up in the face of the converging crises.

 

I digress.  Getting back to supporting the most vulnerable at our garden.  Can we do it? Yes

Do we have the funds, resources, skills and the time?

 

Nope.  

 

Do we want to?  

 

Hell yes. 

 

So what are the barrier(s)? 

 

Our funding model is wrong (Soooo much time is spent trying to get grants then working to acquit them!!! I know – I’m on the garden committee – or Carrot Committee as my daughter likes to call it), the site is a challenge to access for people with reduced abilities, there are limited spaces for all weather gathering for more than a few people, it is baking in summer and freezing in winter, our location is behind a regional abattoir,  we lack competent skilled enthusiastic volunteers, our local government see us as just “passionate community gardeners” and makes us justify why we are sustainable on grant applications (one day I’ll show you my response- it’s a schooling in sustainability 101), and lastly, our regional hospital doesn’t connect promoting and supporting a healthy nutritious local seasonal food culture with a reduction in demand for their services and costs. Like duh! 

 

Our community garden is just an incorporated organisation managing land that was donated to council for the use as a community garden.  The organisations major income is charging memberships to access the land, resources and skills and providing insurance to protect the members.  Anything extra the community requires should be appropriately funded.

 

Yes we are awaiting a funding application to create a masterplan for the site that creates some shovel ready projects to address some of the above barriers. It’s a planned and considered approach after 4 years of seeing the challenges we face. But unless the projects are funded, we cannot get to the next step…

 

Paid people in the garden running the garden activities and supporting the community, just building the infrastructure will not solve our problems.  Just a heads up.

 

Who funds these people?  

 

Let’s just eliminate volunteers for the minute.  We know our community, like most, has suffered volunteer burnout.  But it may be time to shift which volunteer organisations are supported and funded. 

 

Surely an organisation that has the potential to improve community dietary, mental and physical health, educate around sustainability issues, build resilience in the face of a climate emergency, reduce local health costs and improve overall community wellbeing is an organisation worth funding?  

 

Me, I see local and state governments funding community gardens for the necessary infrastructure (without the hoopla of writing grant applications), and for the health system to fund the staff – these staff are effectively working in prevention.  Preventing people from prematurely entering the local health system – causing excessive ambulance wait times and ramping, overloading the mental health clinics or the hospitals with non-communicable diseases (diabetes, obesity or heart disease – all preventable) and the in home supports required by the NDIS participants let down by our industrial food system and fast food culture.   We need to be creative in how we approach funding our gardens.  Bringing health services to the people in a garden setting may appear new and alternative but it’s worth giving it a go.

Let's get even wilder and allow community gardens to accept green billing or social billing from local Doctors who see the benefits to their clients engaging in community gardening and its health and social benefits.

 

Oh and community gardens don’t cause head injuries or ACL injuries – just the odd sprained ankle.

 

Will you support us and fund us - ongoing funding that is?