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Magdalene Community Growing Project Final Report

CCF Project No 3821

www.facebook.com/ediblemagdalene

You can view our video here: https://vimeo.com/152564034

Report compiled by Mags Hall, Food Development Worker; Sarah Smith, Community Gardener; Greig Robertson, Project Co-ordinator

Starting Point

Our project was a collaboration between the Community Alliance Trust (CAT) and the Edible Estates project. CAT is a well established development trust working with the local community across the regeneration development of Craigmillar, South-east Edinburgh. Edible Estates has been working with communities throughout Edinburgh for the last four years, transforming greenspace in former council estates into community gardens and edible landscapes.

Magdalene is a former council estate in the wider Craigmillar area consisting of 985 households, and approximately 2,000 people. It is considered a deprived community, with half the estate falling into the 0 - 5% most deprived category in the SIMD, whilst the other half is 10 - 15% most deprived.

The local Community Council in Magdalene had identified the possibility for a food growing project in the estate, which has large backgreen areas, pockets of greenspace at the street corners, and extensive open space around the local primary school. The aim was to utilise these areas in a project which would encourage the community to work together, enrich their local area, and create a space where people could learn the skills to grow and cook healthy, local affordable food.

We set out to achieve the following outcomes from our project;

• Reduce Magdalene’s carbon emissions by 51.2 tonnes CO2e by increasing local food growing

• Reduce Magdalene’s carbon emissions by 80 tonnes CO2e by reducing food waste

• Improve greenspace within the estate, establishing a community food growing hub, and facilitating the participation of local residents and organisations in the management and improvement of local greenspace assets, in terms of; amenity value to the local community, and an increase in biodiversity.

• Strengthen community resilience of the estate i.e. the capacity of the community to harness the resources available to them (both human and physical), to adapt to social, economic and environmental change in a manner which maintains or improves the quality of life of the community and the individuals within it

• Improve the health and wellbeing of local residents through physical activity and social interaction at community food growing sites, and by promoting and supporting healthy eating options.

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Headline Achievements

CARBON SAVINGS

We estimate our project will save 74.2 tonnes CO2e over the next 10 years. This breaks down as 38.7 tonnes CO2e through reduction of food waste, and 35.5 tonnes CO2e through the creation of food growing space in Magdalene. Full carbon calculations are included in the appendix.

NEW GROWING SPACES IN MAGDALENE

As a community we have created two new growing spaces on previously grassed-over land. The main garden hub has 115m2 of growing space, divided between beds for individual volunteers, shared mini-polytunnels, teaching beds, and a communal forest garden around the perimeter of the site. There is also a community shed, fully stocked with tools, it’s own camp kitchen, and solar panels; a separate storage shed; and four large water storage tanks. 30 local residents are regularly using the site and are looking forward to growing their own produce there this year.

We also worked with the school to create a 110m2 edible forest garden with pupils from Brunstane Primary. We’ve created a wonderful peaceful place on what was previously an unloved, unnoticed piece of green space. We cleared up the site, developed a design, planted a huge variety of edible, medicinal, and biodiversity enhancing plants, and even create some play structures including a willow den.

OPEN DAY

Our open day on August 1st saw over 40 people come along to visit the Hub for the first time. They were impressed by our progress so far (half the beds built) and keen to get the rest of the site finished. We signed up several new plot holders and gained a few site builders too.

Our visitors were impressed by our delicious food, interesting music (from our live band) and inspired by the freshly planted herbs: our first fully planted bed in the garden.

OCTOBER COMMUNITY DAY

To drum up some new volunteers our current members wanted to host their very own welcoming open day once the building of the beds and shed was complete. This was a great chance as project workers to see how they cope with organising events on their own. The staff team gave minimal support and between them they organised a huge variety of raffle prizes, a fantastic spread of food including soup, cakes, baked goods and they even had scones with the Magdalene Jam made in Mag’s workshop!

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They managed to raise some more interest in the raised beds, gaining about 8 new members. The garden still has lots of work to be done over the next few months, so the new volunteers will be highly prized.

VIDEO

We were fortunate enough to come across the work of Glenda Rome, a local film maker who agreed to create an informative short film about Edible Estates and it’s work across Edinburgh. We hosted her at Magdalene for several sessions to help her see what we do, and many of our volunteers were keen to tell the world how much they value the project. You can see the video here https://vimeo.com/152564034 and get a taste of what we’ve been up to.

This will be a real asset for sharing with other projects, the Community Alliance Trust, and future funders.

CHRISTMAS DINNER

We had a great turn out to our Christmas Dinner Party in which Mags and the food volunteers created a fabulous Christmas Dinner Pie, a fantastic and frugal way to use up all your christmas dinner leftovers and turn them into a delicious meal for over 20 people. We were treated to mince pies made by our younger guests, and we also used this as a chance to air our video for the first time to our participants, who loved it. It proved to be quite an emotional experience for our members as it allowed them to explore their motivations, how their lives have changed since starting with the project, and to reflect on all the positive experiences they’ve had so far.

GRAFTING DAY

Magdalene Edible Estates and The Donkey Field’s Orchards got together to provide a two day workshop over a weekend in February, when MEE helped the DFO to prune their fruit trees, and in return we used the cuttings to host a grafting workshop with the infamous Apple Tree Man: Andrew Lear.

We all learned a great deal which will be useful for next springs pruning in the Hub and the school orchard, and we also learned how to propagate our local trees in order to keep them growing strong. We hope that in the future we can work to take cuttings of successful local fruit trees (we identified a number of possible candidates from our work on a tree map) and share them around Magdalene, to make sure these local varieties can continue long into the future.

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Activities

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Our first task when Rhona and Sarah arrived in Magdalene was to start surveying the estate to drum up interest, find out what people want and let them know we’re about. We put a leaflet through over 900 doors and then followed that up with our survey in person. By this time Rhona had left and Mags had joined the team. Sarah, Fergus and Mags managed to get about 120 replies and used this information to form the basis for our advertising for local events. A summary report of the survey is attached as a supporting document.

Our first volunteer was Bob. He helped us build the shed and then went on to form part of our stalwart group of community builders and growers. Once the site was open and the shed was built we started out community build workshops and gained a few new members. These volunteers would go on to form the Magdalene Growers Association.

As we got to know the community better and understand their motivations for joining the project, we were able to target our activities at different groups a little better.

Mags’ food workshops were great for those with disabilities that prevented them from doing any heavy building work. And having a midweek growing workshops for mums and kids meant we could target this group that was initially underrepresented.

We worked with and alongside the community to try and get more people involved. The participants were our greatest recruiters, they brought friends and family down to get involved, and spread the work to their neighbours.

There was a tricky part at the beginning of the project when some garden neighbours were in opposition to our proposals. However, this stemmed from a misunderstanding about what we were creating so our information evening and launch event in April served to correct these issues and some of those people are now our most committed volunteers! We had many questions from those both in support and in opposition to the garden but by the end of the evening people better understood our goals and felt more comfortable about the project. (|Most people feared an allotment culture where

• We delivered 85 growing and 25 cooking workshops to the local community

• Special workshops: foraging, jam making, wreath making, grafting, pruning

• We held 4 community wide events (Open Day, October day, Christmas, Grafting)

• We employed two members of staff (full time equivalent of one) and one regular sessional worker

• 30 local people are actively involved in Magdalene Edible Estates

• 10 people volunteered their time to help build the community garden and set up the management committee

• One local school is involved in the project, with 150 pupils have taken part in 31 workshops

• 225m2 growing space has been established across two sites in Magdalene - the community hub and 110m2 at the school orchard

• We estimate that the project will save 73.7 tonnes CO2e over the next 10 years - 38.7 tonnes CO2e through reduction of food waste and 35 tonnes CO2e through the creation of food growing space in Magdalene.

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people would clog up the streets with cars to visit the site. They didn’t realise at first that it was only for local people and it wasn’t an allotment. They also feared young people would gather there and get up to mischief, however there’s been a substantial drop in anti-social behaviour in the area as a result of increased adult presence and the security fence.)

The Magdalene Growers Association (MGA) were keen to get established and start operating as a group long before the official end of the project. This allowed us, as project workers, to train them up a bit on how to run meetings, how to deal with conflicts, and how to manage the site. They took to it very well with only a few teething problems. We hope that over time they’ll continue to improve their group management skills and feel comfortable training future office bearers.

Although they’ve done quite well, it would have been beneficial to them to have continued support for their first year. Edible Estates is working on getting some funding to provide once a week support to members so that they have a source of advice, training and information when they need it.

COMMUNITY SELF BUILD

Initially the build process was undertaken by contractors and the paid staff at Edible Estates. This was for the trickier elements of site establishment such as the fencing, main pathways and the shed. Once we had a safe working site we invited members of the public to join in with the creation of the forest garden and raised beds.

We advertised this to those who had signed up to our mailing list, facebook page and by putting posters in local shops and fliers in the doors of those who expressed an interest in our project during the initial survey.

To kick start this process, we engaged the Growing Youth scheme to come over and start some of the raised bed and path building. Partly because this work is exactly what they like doing, and partly to give an example to the community of what the finished place would look like.

We ended up with about 7 dedicated community builders and another 3 that helped less frequently with physically demanding jobs, but were excellent tea makers! We also hired Fergus to help us with this portion of the project who provided workshops on how to build and arrange raised beds in the garden for maximum growing space.

Once the beds were built we moved onto path making, which the participants took to with gusto, having the whole place dug, lined, laid and tamped in the space of a week.

Once the main body of the garden was finished, Fergus helped the volunteers to finish laying out the forest garden. Sarah and Greig worked with the participants on the functional (and the odd frivolous!) aspects of the shed such as fitting a solar panel for lighting, plumbing up the guttering system, creating the shelving and kitchen areas inside the shed and designing the storage shed and sand pit.

We have also decided on having many mini polytunnels rather than one large one as they are easier to build, maintain and divide between individuals. So far we have 15 bays available for participants to share.

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The first polytunnel was a little tricky to build but once we got a system going we could have one built, covered and hinged up within an hour. The participants ploughed through these, getting them all finished in no time at all. Sadly we didn’t get them built in time to make use of them over the winter (except for our trial polytunnel which worked a treat and gives us hope for next year).

As the project came to a close the only building task outstanding was the sandpit. We’ve managed to secure some funding for sand, and we have a design ready to go. The participants have decided to build this themselves from leftover timber and will hopefully be finished in time for summer.

GROWING WORKSHOPS

Growing workshops began before the garden was in any way ready by making use of the local community centre. This centre had started a very small community garden of four raised beds several years ago which had fallen into disuse. We revived two of the beds planting them with herbs and flowers with some of the local children.

We also ran workshops with the school to renovate their memorial garden with the P6 and P7 classes. Whilst this was a good start and made the most of the first May we operated in Magdalene, it was frustrating that the garden hub wasn’t yet in a condition to be planting in.

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Our first proper garden workshop took place on the August 1st Open Day. With the herb bed, and a brassica bed being put in ready for overwintering. Many of these plants survived well into spring before being rehoused or removed for new plantings.

After this, two garden workshops a week took place to help people get started in their gardens. However, with it being almost the end of the growing season, and with the volunteer numbers being in their infancy, it was difficult to achieve a great deal of growth in this short period. Once winter hit, many things (other than brassicas) died off, leaving the garden looking bare for much of winter.

Forest garden planting took place from September through to January, when most fruit bushes and trees were dormant and herbs began to be planted out from early March. We also planted broad beans, garlic and onions during late winter/early spring in some shared community beds.

Growing workshops took up again in early march with bi-weekly workshops in getting the seeds started undercover (as by this point we had our polytunnels ready) and tending to some of the hardier crops we planted for over wintering.

We got a lot of seeds started in that time and we’ve left behind some resources to help new members as they come into the garden to know what to plant, when and where. Hopefully with the support of other members who’ve been around a little longer, the new members will get on fine.

FOOD WORKSHOPS

Our community food worker Mags joined the team in June 2015 and set about building up an interest in the food strand and making arrangements for cookery workshops. Our initial baseline survey indicated that there were 58 people interested in participating in food activities, but not necessarily formal workshops. Anecdotal feedback on the doorsteps suggested many people were cooking at home already and felt they had a baseline knowledge in the kitchen, but would like to expand their repertoire more or have the opportunity to cook and share food with friends and neighbours.

We initially had problems getting access to cooking facilities too; whilst there is a good kitchen facility at the local community centre, this is heavily subscribed to by other community groups and was in use for the duration of the school summer holidays, when they run a summer playscheme. There are cooking facilities at the Bingham Community Centre on the neighbouring estate, and a professional style kitchen at Edinburgh College just over a mile away, but there was a perception that these venues were not really for local people in Magdalene and we worried that the uptake would be low if were to hold workshops out with the estate. Past experience has also told us that professional style kitchens in a formal learning environment like a college can be intimidating and off-putting for some people, and aren’t always the best choice for community based work.

Whilst starting negotiations with Magdalene Community Centre to find a suitable time when the kitchen was available, we decided to hold cookery sessions at the garden itself in the meantime, using a two-ringed gas burner and simple cooking equipment. We billed them as ‘Soup in the Shed’ sessions, and invited local residents and volunteers down to help make a pot of soup and enjoy food together whilst discussing plans for the future of the garden.

Whilst this was meant initially as a stop-gap, the sessions proved very popular, and we saw increasing numbers of people joining us each week for Soup in the Shed. We saw that holding cookery sessions

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in the garden helped show the full circle of the project and the potential that the still-emerging garden could hold; it was not just a nice spaces for locals to meet, but a site where people could grow food for their families, that the food could make an impact on their health and diets and reduce how often they have to go to supermarkets.

We decided to invest in creating a kitchen space in the shed, complete with gas hobs, worktop space, shelves, pans and a kettle, and a full kit of equipment. We used this kitchen at our weekly Soup in the Shed sessions, but it was also available to volunteers at other times, so they could enjoy a tea break when working on the garden build, or bring along a pan of soup at the weekends. We feel this helped immensely with building a sense of community around the garden, encouraging people to work together as a team rather than working on their own individual beds.

The cookery sessions ran every week from August until October, and as well as making a range of different soups we cooked other things that could be easily made on the stovetop, including risotto, pakoras, pancakes, fritters, tattie scones, and scrambled eggs. We also ran three special preserving sessions in the Autumn, where we made jam and chutney, and pickled beetroot. These all used fruit foraged from around the estate, and vegetables grown by local people already growing in their back gardens. The other cookery sessions were all based around vegetables that could be grown in the garden, and by October we had our first herbs and kale that could be harvested and used, which was an exciting development! They were mostly vegetarian too, which was new to most of our participants, and gave us a good opportunity to talk about the environmental and health benefits of a low-meat diet. By the end of the year several of our participants reported that they were regularly eating less meat at home, and basing many of their meals around vegetables instead.

By the October school holidays however, the weather was deteriorating and we decided to move the cookery sessions inside for the winter. We had managed to negotiate with the community centre a lunchtime slot once a fortnight, and so our Soup in the Shed sessions became Low Waste Lunches. Having a full kitchen to work with allowed us to expand our repertoire and we began cooking dishes like vegetarian shepherd’s pie, soda bread, and fruit crumbles and bakes. This culminated in some of our volunteers helping to cook christmas lunch for the project participants (see Community Events, below) when we made a christmas pie for 18 people using things that are often leftover after the main lunch.

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Although we had more comfortable surroundings, we found that the participation in the workshops dropped over the winter months, often to a core group of 5 or 6 participants. We think this may have been down to a perceived loss of connection to the garden by moving venue. We also tried to focus more on the waste-reduction aspect of the food work, encouraging people to keep food diaries and monitor the food they wasted, and this was not popular. (See ‘Learning and Reflection’ below for more on the perception of food waste in low income communities) However, by February participants were asking once again if we could return to the garden for Soup in the Shed sessions, so we began to put plans in place to support a regular community lunch in the garden over the spring and summer months and we are currently seeking funding to allow this to continue.

In total, we delivered 25 cooking workshops, with 29 unique participants. We had an average of 6 participants per workshop.

COMMUNITY EVENTS

August open day: August 1st was our first official open day to get new people in and show them what we’d achieved so far. Growing Youth had built us some raised beds, Mags cooked up a storm, and Sarah planted up the first bed with the help of the local community: our herb bed.

We had music from a great local bluegrass band, and our shed became a very popular venue when the rain hit! We signed up about 10 new members on the day and took contact details for several more.

This was a great chance to get some feedback from the locals about how they thought we were doing. We got a lot of compliments and some suggestions for improvements, obviously there was still a lot of work to be done, but having feedback at this stage meant that we could incorporate some of these improvements over the coming months.

October open day: Our October celebration was hosted by the soon to be growers association. They were keen to get in some more members now the majority of the building work was done, and held the day hoping to recruit some new people, spread the word about the garden, and raise the profile of the project. They conducted a raffle with donated prizes from local shops, put on an excellent spread of food and even invented halloween themed games to keep the kids happy! Overall, we were very proud as project workers to work with a group of people who were so keen to get involved in the management of their site, so early in the life of the project. It highlighted their strengths as a community (engaging local businesses, spread the word amongst friends and family) and helped us all to understand where more support was needed (promotion, finances).

Christmas Dinner: We used our christmas celebration as a chance to get together to celebrate our progress, look towards the future, eat some delicious food and view our video for the first time. It was extremely well attended and the cooking team did a great job of feeding everyone. We were all very impressed with the edit of our video and grateful to have the chance to feedback on what was good about it, and what could be improved.

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We also made wreaths using pine cones that fall into the garden from a nearby tree, evergreen shrub material from around the estate, and willow from nearby greendyke allotments. Some participants were sceptical at first, but once they saw how fantastic the wreaths looked once you added some other plant material lots of people wanted one!

MAGDALENE KIDS ORCHARD

After the establishment of the Community Growing Hub, with a dedicated core group who were in the process of constituting as a formal Growers Association, this was the chance to expand the project and look at developing further edible greenspace. The project engaged Fergus Walker, who had worked as a freelance builder on the Hub shed and as a workshop facilitator for building raised beds, to undertake research and delivery of a suitable edible greenspace. The first step was to evaluate a suitable site that would have the greatest chance of:

● Best possible food yield for low maintenance

● long term sustainability

● benefiting the most people

● positive advertising for the benefits of growing your own food in Magdalene

It was also vital to identify a group who were keen to look after the plants that would be planted, and to find a site for them that would be within easy

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reach, and would not require too much maintenance whilst not being suseptible to vandalism. On approaching the primary school, it quickly became clear that there was a lot of enthusiasm to take on an edible gardening project and an ideal site to develop – a ready fenced, sunny grassed area right next to the school gates, under the jurisdiction of the Council Parks Department.A meeting was held in November with staff from Brunstane Primary School and the local Parks Officer with Edinburgh Council. The meeting consisted of a visit to the Growing Hub, and a discussion on the establishment of the growing space, to be managed by the primary school. It was agreed that if the site was planted up with a perimeter forest garden or orchard, in a similar style to the example given at the Hub, then the council would still be willing to come and mow the centre of the space. This would give flexibility to the school, meaning that they could in future develop the space further, with some great vision of an outdoor learning space with a classroom shed, but that the site would continue to retain suitable tidiness and aesthetic value with manageable maintenance.It was also agreed that Fergus would work with Kieran’s P5-6 class, delivering a Forest Gardening winter workshop programme, encompassing education on gardening, permaculture principles, garden design and planning, before engaging a wider range of classes in the planting process.Each of these initial workshops had a focus on a different topic, under three themes – Plants as food, Plants as material, and Biodiversity. Every workshop was primarily practical, but was designed to be thought provoking too – with some things to investigate afterwards under the curriculum for excellence headings. The overarching theme was environmental sustainability, looking at how our relationship to the land has changed over the ages, and how there is a now sustainable food movement happening, of which Brunstane school can be a part. The workshops were as follows (November to January)

● WORKSHOP 1 – The Elder Tree and its many uses – as food, as material, as medicine. This involved picking elder berries and making cordial. Theme: resourcefulness in making food and medicine with zero food miles.

● WORKSHOP 2 – Nettles, twine and resourcefulness – making cordage from nettles. Theme: considering the energy input of using resources to make everyday things.

● WORKSHOP 3 – Seeds and soil. Making seed bombs and sowing broad beans. Theme: the global value of topsoil as a scarce resource, and carbon sequestration in soil

● WORKSHOP 4 – Garden design – considering the multiple uses of a garden – by people, by wildlife, for food, for fuel or fibre, for encouraging biodiversity.

● WORKSHOP 5 – Garden design – building a scale model of the garden

● WORKSHOP 6 – Summer smoothies in winter – making smoothies from frozen local fruit and bottle apple juice, to give a taste of the produce that would come from the garden in a few years.

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Having worked with the school pupils on their desires for what to grow, the next stage was to design the garden space and planting plan, and order the trees, fruit bushes and ground cover plants for the forest garden orchard from local suppliers. Work on the garden started at the end of January, and were held on 12 different days up until the end of March. Involving pupils, teachers, and on occasion parents and local residents, the sessions covered the whole journey of planting up the orchard, from the laying of groundcover and edging, digging holes, planting fruit trees and bushes, creating a willow den and windbreak, planting groundcover plants and finally pruning the new trees in the spring. One of the tasks in the site build was the cutting of a gate directly between the garden site and the school, so that the school has direct access. Meanwhile, in order to prevent dog owners using the site to let their dogs run free the council has locked the outer gate (while the inner gate remains open for the time being), as well as the school pupils making signs asking dog owners not to let dogs in.The school will continue to look after the new garden, while also being able to call on the Growers’ Association for help and advice. The fruit bushes and canes should start to bear fruit next year (2017) and the fruit trees in a couple of years (2018).

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Outcomes

• Reduce Magdalene’s carbon emissions by 51.2 tonnes CO2e by increasing local food growing

Outcome in reality: 35.5 tonnes CO2e over 10 years.

We believe this discrepancy comes from an original miscalculation in how much space was available for growing. The figure originally cited appears to be the entire area of the hub site, which made no allowance for paths, the shed, and lawn. Despite this result, we feel we have made a significant impact through the creation of the Hub site and school garden.

We also know that some of our participants have taken the skills and knowledge they’d gained at the garden back to their own homes and created growing spaces as a result of our work. They admit they would not have bothered before, but now feel equipped to undertake more growing at home. The influence of the project may stretch further than we can accurately measure.

The figures behind this claim are listed in the appendices and we’ve included a low yield and moderate yield forecast, so these are worst case scenario predictions. If we get a good few growing years, we can expect a much better yield from our two sites.

• Reduce Magdalene’s carbon emissions by 80 tonnes CO2e by reducing food waste

Outcome in reality: 37.8 tonnes CO2e over 10 years

This figure is lower than anticipated as we engaged with just under half the number of people we had originally predicted. Our original estimate was based on 60 people attending one workshop each, with half of those going on to make a 20% reduction in their food waste. We in fact worked with only 29 people, however almost all of these attended more than one workshop, with some coming to nearly all 25 cookery sessions we ran!

We would hope that in reality, the fact that we have worked in a more in-depth way with a reduced number of people would result in a higher percentage of households making savings, and some of these savings being markedly higher than 20%.

We found it very difficult to gather the more detailed data suggested by CCF, such as weighing food waste or keeping food diaries, and as such have used the original estimates based on CCFs Low Carbon Routemap for food. We have gone into more detail below in the ‘learning and reflection’ section as to the challenges of collecting this kind of data.

• Improve greenspace within the estate, establishing a community food growing hub, and facilitating the participation of local residents and organisations in the management and improvement of local greenspace assets, in terms of; amenity value to the local community, and an increase in biodiversity.

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Without a doubt we have improved the green space around the estate, not just at the hub site but also at the school garden and through some work at the community centre.

In an end of project survey, our participants identified that they now spend more time outside enjoying their local green spaces, feel more confident growing food in a community setting and more able to participate in community initiatives around greenspace use, health, and food.

Having worked with the MGA to establish the group, we’ve also introduced them to useful organisations and helped them to forge links between nearby facilities including the school and community centre, the Neighbourhood Alliance and the Donkeyfield orchard. They are now creating their own links with local organisation and working towards gaining funding for their future projects.

Participants have identified that they now take more interest in attending information sessions about local initiatives and have been actively going to meetings about local improvements (relating to a variety of topics such as schooling, play spaces, biodiversity improvements, and health projects).

• Strengthen community resilience of the estate i.e. the capacity of the community to harness the resources available to them (both human and physical), to adapt to social, economic and environmental change in a manner which maintains or improves the quality of life of the community and the individuals within it

Participants have identified that they feel like they have a better working knowledge of the organisations and authorities in place in their community. They now feel better able to approach these authorities for help, information and advice, which puts them in good stead for future developments across Magdalene. They have already started to reach out to local organisations for support, which will help to make them more sustainable and demonstrates their resilience in light of the fact that they will not receive any further significant support from MEE.

Through the process of tree mapping, foraging walks and interactions with other garden sites our members are now more aware of the natural resources available to them. We made entire meals from picking weeds around the estate, we picked local cherries, brambles, raspberries and strawberries to make jam and healthy snacks, and we harvested willow to create structures for our homes and the garden. Having spoken with participants about these activities since, they now feel more confident in identifying which plants to pick, when to pick them, and what to do with them afterwards. They have said they would continue these activities in the future.

We feel these activities have had an important impact on how residents view the greenspace around the estate: rather than simply green carpets between houses where dogs can have a quick run, they

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are starting to see them more as pockets of nature which they can enjoy and put to use in a way which benefits the local community.

• Improve the health and wellbeing of local residents through physical activity and social interaction at community food growing sites, and by promoting and supporting healthy eating options.

Some members identified that they now feel more physically active and spend more time outside. They also report being more aware of what they eat and consciously wasting less food. Some of our participants have started growing food that they had never heard of until they cooked them with Mags, which is great! Kale is a particular favourite in Magdalene now.

Our greatest feedback so far is that our participants are less socially isolated than before, and enjoy a wider variety of their local society. Neighbours who have never noticed each other are speaking to each other, and becoming friends with people they would never ordinarily have met.

Magdalene and the greater Craigmillar area still have a long way to go to promote healthy, local food to the majority, but the work of CAT and other organisations across this part of Edinburgh is definitely having an effect. Our members are now more aware of seasonally available produce and what to do with it. They are more aware of the health benefits of fruit and vegetables over processed foods, and having explored various recipe options with Mags are more confident in knowing what to do with previously unexplored ingredients.

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Learning and Reflection

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND RELATIONSHIPS

As a project worker, one of the biggest challenges is getting to know a community in such a short space of time. We had to work hard to learn about the culture in Magdalene, to get to know the residents, and to gain an understanding of their concerns, motivations and hopes for the area. At the end of our first year, we feel like we’ve just come to this point, but I’m sure there’s more to learn. It seems a shame that all that knowledge will be lost and will have to be regained by future project workers when funding becomes available. The only way I can see around this is to have longer funding periods to make sure that projects are stable and able to support themselves before removing staff support. Alternatively, to change the funding period for growing related projects so that it lines up better with the growing year. E.g. from September to September would have given us a chance to build over winter, and then grow during Spring and Summer.

The project’s initial reception in the community was divided. Some people really loved the idea and couldn’t wait for it to start, but there was an intimidating situation in which some very vocal, rather aggressively sounding members of the public were strongly against our presence. Ultimately, this came down to a misunderstanding about what the project would involve. We turned this around by hosting a public information evening, and by keeping in regular contact with the neighbours of the garden.

Part of the site development that I would recommend to other organisations working in a similar situation would be the fence. It was operated by a code lock that you had to use to get in AND out. This has come in handy both for keeping people out and keeping people in. As a female project worker, working alone most of the time with volunteers, it was reassuring to know that outsiders couldn’t get in to disrupt workshops, and also that vulnerable members and children couldn’t get out and into danger. There were a couple of safety incidents during our time in Magdalene, but these have been greatly reduced by having a safe, secure space to work in.

It is sometimes argues that fences serve to keep the community out, but this has certainly not been the case in our experience. In fact, many are also appreciative of the security and seclusion it provides. It has minimised vandalism and crime on the site, and it sets the garden apart as a safe space where you can get some well deserved peace and quiet. We use the fence to advertise events by using posters and banners, and our contact details are freely available there to anyone who wished to get access, find out more, or report an issue.

DATA COLLECTION

We spent a lot of time in the early part of the project collecting participant data, researching the community, and at the end of the project surveying people’s perceptions on how the project had gone. The most useful data was definitely the end of project survey, as it validated what we had done well, and highlighted improvements for future projects.

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We did multiple sweeps of the entire estate of almost 1000 households. This left us with 120 people wanting to speak to us and about 70 signing up to our mailing list. This is actually quite a good rate for what I expected from a leaflet drop, however of those 70 only about 20 actively interact with the mailing list, facebook and come along regularly to the garden. Our other volunteers have been recruited through members, exposure to the site or word of mouth.

Whilst the initial project survey proved very time consuming, it was useful for gathering contact details, generating interest in the project, and making general assumptions about people’s perception of food waste and climate change in the area. For example, we found that just over half of people were concerned about climate change, and that a large majority (80%) are careful of not wasting food. However, whilst this data was useful for giving us a starting base, it was not really possible to make a comparative study at the end of the project, as we were working with a much smaller group of more engaged participants by the end.

We found that people were struggling to use their food waste caddies provided by the council, due in part to the inadequate local composting facilities and council collection, which was often missed, or difficult to organise in flats containing up to 30 households. Most people were shocked at the idea of wasting food through negligence or overbuying food, as it just wasn’t financially an option for them. Many people admitted to trying to use the council compost caddies, but finding it a bit frustrating when they so often failed to collect them. Most people didn’t compost at home, but when it was suggested they said they would if they had the time and know how, but with such limited time between work and family responsibilities they didn’t have the time to learn.

We planned on collecting data about food waste in houses to see if we could reduce this number, using food diaries and surveys for people to weigh their food waste. Besides the fact that local residents didn’t really produce a lot of food waste, we found it difficult to get the to try and record it by weight, as it requires quite a lot of organisation, and also a passion from the participants to keep accurate records. Busy lives, small children, and health problems, as well as literacy problems, can all be a barrier to recording this kind of data. In the end, we adopted a more holistic approach to our food work, building a culture of celebration, understanding and respect for food and the environment, which we hope will have a long lasting impact on the way people eat and their relationship with food, including how much they waste.

LOCAL INFRASTRUCTURE + CULTURE

We found that at first, it was difficult to find the right person at the council, or find out who we needed to speak to in various local organisations. If as experienced community workers we found it difficult in this area, it’s likely that individual local residents find it extremely difficult. CAT has facilitated this in many ways and I hope they continue to build links across the various community groups in this area, so that in future, local residents will find it easier to get the information they need, to affect the changes they want to see.

Hopefully the links we’ve forged will remain strong for the MGA and give them access to other resources in the long term.

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Finance and administration

Administering the daily running of the project eventually settled into a good routine, however in the early days it was quite erratic. We had no base of operations, no system for petty cash, the format of the reports we were required to submit kept changing and we were trying to manage all this as well as completing surveys, making connections with the local community, starting growing and food workshops and building the site. For future projects a secure base of operations would be ideal, and should be established as a priority in the early days.

Eventually we came up with a petty cash system, but this was only possible due to support form WHHA, EE and CAT all working together to come up with a solution for the team on the ground. If CCF was able to implement some mechanism by which projects can easily set up a petty cash system this would help future projects.

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Legacy

Whilst we were disappointed not to receive continuation funding from the Climate Challenge Fund, we are very pleased with the progress the project and the community have made in one short year of funding. We are leaving behind a completed hub garden, fully equipped for the coming year, and an active Growers Association who we feel are able to take on the day to day running of the garden. The children’s orchard that was established at the School will hopefully be looked after by the next generation in Magdalene and provide a free and healthy source of seasonal fruit.

We feel there is still work to be done in supporting the growers through their first full growing year, and bringing new people into the project, and with that in mind both CAT and the Magdalene Growers Association will be making funding applications to try and retain some staff support for the association for a further year. This will focus on running workshops and volunteer sessions, to facilitate the skill sharing amongst the group that has begun already, and putting procedures in place to ensure the garden remains open and accessible to all.

Supporting information

Attached as appendixes to this report are the following supporting documents;

Appendix 1 - CO2e Savings Calculations

Appendix 2 - Baseline Survey Summary report

Appendix 3 & 4 - Kids Orchard Planting Plans

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