Green Care, Churchill Fellows and Community Growing

In May I had the pleasure of meeting (virtually) Australian Churchill Fellow Judy Brewer. Judy's research fellowship also looks at care farming but with a focus on young people and adults on the Autistic Spectrum. 

We often think that care farming and social gardening is a modern invention but in fact care farming and therapeutic gardening in Europe date back to the 4th Century BCE. The first use of gardens as part of the healing process was attributed to the physician Hippocrates as part of the Ancient Greek hospitals called Asklepieia, which were named after the Greek God of medicine Asclepius. Hospitals planted gardens and green spaces and patients spending time there was seen as an important part of the prescription during their stay in hospital. They were also encouraged to spend time in natural surroundings when they returned home.

I look forward to launching my own research fellowship project once travel is considered safe again but until then I continue to focus on green care projects closer to home. In May and June I began to work with Hannah Fenton from the charity Sustain, and Lucy and Rebecca from the charity Feedback, looking at wider issues for food and farming. Hannah had set up a county wide Food Partnership in Buckinghamshire and virtual meetings took place between local and national groups, food producers, and the County Council. I also enjoyed a number of online training sessions that looked at community growing and how this can contribute to a local food partnership as well as encouraging volunteers to learn new skills, spend time in nature and ultimately enjoy the fruit and vegetables of their labour!

 

Rain Stops Play or at least Covid Stops Travel

With the excitement of the Churchill Fellowship award still in the air I began to contact people in preparation for visits later in the year. Then as March progressed the excitement was replaced by the reality of the pandemic. My travel plans were unlikely to happen for several months at the very earliest.

Feeling slightly deflated and wanting to make good use of my time at home, I wondered if there were any local green care projects I could become involved in. 

Green care comes in a number of shapes and sizes and includes not just Care Farming but also: Animal Assisted Interventions, Green Exercise, Environmental Conservation and Therapeutic Horticulture including Food Growing.

Having explored the options I began discussions with local land owners and local funders to see if a Community Orchard would be possible. I hoped that we could plant heritage varieties of fruit, which used to be very popular in this area. Although, orchards can take a number of years to establish, especially if planting from scratch, this seemed like an ideal project to get young and old involved. This also had the additional promise of a shared harvest in a couple of years.

April brought good news and the offer of funding for the orchard. It also brought concerning news as care farms around the country wondered if they could afford to feed their animals. News from the farm gates also reached me saying that many farmers who had lost routes to market for their produce were at risk of closure.

Reaching out to another Churchill Fellow, Martin Yarnit, I asked the question - Are there any other routes to market for local farmers? After multiple discussions the answer seemed to be to yes through food hubs or cooperatives and this is a very common model in the US and Italy. But one doesn't currently exist in my region, however, many places in the UK are looking at this as a potential approach so why not investigate the possibility of a local food hub or cooperative.

In my next blog I'll talk more about the food collaboration conversations that have been going on.

Exploring Care Farming in Europe through my 2020 Churchill Fellowship

In February 2020 I was lucky enough to be awarded one of the 2020 Churchill Fellowships but the journey to this fellowship began much earlier back in March 2018. 

My background is in teaching, special education, policy and research and I'd been working with a young person at risk of exclusion from school. The only thing they were interested in was animals and after asking around I found a care farm near by and arranged a visit. 

I was immediately hooked by the idea that vulnerable young people could learn new skills in an outdoor environment with a supportive mentor and decided to research the topic in more depth. Fast forward fifteen months and over 150 academic books and articles later and I found myself asking 'why don't more farmers set up care farms?'

Around this time I saw that the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust in partnership with The Prince's Countryside Fund was offering research fellowships in rural living so I applied to research 'care farming and the benefits for farmers and the rural community'.

This blog will follow my journey as I meet farmers and academics in Italy, Ireland and Norway and look at the local green care projects keeping me busy during Covid.