Source: www.edenprojectcommunities.com (NGFP)
Source: www.amcgardens.co.uk (NGFP)
Set up by Nourish Associates in 2016, The NTU Allotment, formally known as Foodshare is a one plot food growing site incorporating raised beds, polytunnel, shed, rain-water harvesting, fruit bushes and more recently an outdoor classroom pergola. The University won the National Green Gown Awards and have embedded food growing across the curriculum providing students not only with food for eating and sharing philanthropically with neighbouring charities most in need, but importantly educational volunteering opportunities. Students learn about soil management, sowing, growing and food harvesting as well as composting. Image source: www.ntu.ac.uk (NGFP).
Set up in 2009, The Eden Project, Big Lunch initiative brings people together annually to share food. The aim is to improve the happiness and wellbeing of people across the UK by helping to build resilient and better-connected communities. Eating a shared lunch with neighbours is a starting point for ideas and conversations to brew and for skills and resource sharing to happen. In 2017, 9.3 million people took part across the UK. Closing the Distance Between Us report commissioned by The Big Lunch found that 76% of those questioned believed they were closer to their neighbours 20 years ago than they are today. Image source: www.edenprojectcommunities.com (NGFP).
6. Places to eat together
Food is the great unifier, we all need to eat well and it seems that food often tastes better outside. The smell of food cooking in a cob oven, or a simple barbecue has everyone sniffing the air. Providing points for electricity, drinking water sources, a seating area and an outdoor pizza oven are cost effective ways to help communities bond and become more resilient. Some cover or shelter from the wind, rain and sun can increase the use and enjoyment of outdoor space, and encourage people to spend more time close to nature.
External space to eat is particularly valuable for residents who do not have a private garden, and for homes that are designed for single people. Outdoor eating spaces provide a welcome extension to personal areas and encourage people to go outside and get to know each other. Outdoor areas with food growing opportunities can be magical, especially for children, as they can make that valuable connection between the natural world and their nutrition habits.
Design Criteria
6.1 Provide spaces to eat that are comfortable, considering sun and shade, wind and cover. For example, including pergolas and outdoor dining tables with internet access.
6.2 Design-in community infrastructure like pizza or tandoor ovens, barbecues, outdoor fires, etc. These assets offer a great opportunity to engage new and existing communities in co-design and co-build, processes that help raise emotional investment in place, increasing outdoor space use and contact with nature.
Located in Detroit’s North End neighbourhood, the Michigan Faming Initiative (MUFI) set up ArgiHood, featuring a two acre urban garden, 200 tree fruit orchard, and a children’s sensory garden. By the end of 2017 the organisation had provided more than 5,000 pounds of fresh produce free of charge to more than 2,000 households, most of them low income. The model incorporates hydroponics to increase production of food. The co-founder and farmer Tyson Gresh explains how AgriHood is unique in that it “positions agriculture as a centrepiece of a mixed urban development”. A model for neighbourhood design that, if replicated on a mass scale, could have a massive impact on food insecurity.at neighbourhood levels. Image source: www.greenbiz.com (NGFP).