Argos Shepton Mallet

A fridge and cupboard to share food and resources using surplus donated food in order to provide access to food for the whole community and reduce food poverty.

The Food Forest Project seeks to tackle food poverty in Somerset, Bristol, and BANEs, through small scale, community assisted, regenerative agroecology. We work with communities in and around Somerset that are suffering from particularly high levels of food insecurity. We identify land that isn’t in use, and then working alongside landowners both private and public, and local communities, we design, fundraise for, and build growing schemes in the area. Most recently, we set up a "food bank market garden", run by volunteers, to grow organic produce free for the local food bank. The space has a polytunnel, 25 raised beds, a large fruit cage, and a small picnic orchard. Every Monday, the volunteers harvest, box up, and deliver the produce ready for Tuesday morning, when users arrive. Our vision is to rewild people, and planet through small scale, community assisted agroecology. Regenerative agroecology is an agricultural design philosophy that put people and the environment at the heart of the system, making sure food is grown sustainably, to regenerate nature and local communities. If you are interested in what we do, and how we do it, please visit our website on www.thefoodforestproject.org.

Root Connections is a community garden which has been going since 2015, but registered as a CIC (Community Interest Company) August 2018. The Root Connections plot is based on a beautiful Duchy farm in Somerset. The garden sits alongside the Dairy House, a 6 bed hostel – offering residential accommodation to the homeless, rough sleepers & isolated individuals suffering from, sometimes complex mental health issues & needs. Over the last year we have witnessed tangible benefits of working together in community outdoors; improving health, sleep & general wellbeing. We now have an additional acre & we’re successfully growing on just under two acres, where we grow vegetables & salad crops throughout the year, with a 90ft polytunnel. We have a cut flower garden – where we promote the benefits of buying British grown flowers. We also have plant sales, raised strawberry & herb beds, perennial nursery beds & a woodwork workshop which sits alongside our processing & packing shed. What happens there: The Dairy House residents are encouraged to volunteer in the garden as often as they feel well enough & they’re able to, where we offer structured activities, encourage soft horticultural learning, support with social reintegration by working alongside our team of volunteers & help with the weekly tasks. We have volunteer Land Days on Tuesday & Friday mornings from 10am – 1pm, where people from the local community come together & work alongside the Dairy House volunteers. We harvest for our various orders, markets & church sales & on a Friday we come together for a shared lunch. We sell our produce at the following locations: When in the month Location 1st Sat Midsomer Norton Farmers Market 1st Sun Frome Independent 2nd Sat Keynsham farmers Market 2nd Sat Frome Cheese & Grain (Farmers Market) 2nd Sun Wells Cathedral 3rd Sat The Hub, Mulberry Park, Bath 3rd Sun Bath Vineyard Church, The Hub, Mulberry Park, Bath 3rd Sun Welton Church, Midsomer Norton 4th Sat Glastonbury Farmers Market 4th Sun Elim Church, Wells.