Demand for Land Campaign

Glasgow Community Food Network and partners today announced funding of £15k for 10 community groups across Glasgow as well as the launch of their Demand for Land campaign. This milestone is a major move for the partnership on its mission to work alongside local communities to create a system which is fairer and kinder to both people and the planet, a mission which is being progressed by their Food and Climate Action Project.

The funding was awarded yesterday through a participatory budgeting event with funded projects ranging from a student-led community hub garden in Knightswood Secondary School to a series of workshops linked to learning from COP26 from African Relief Support. Friends of Garnethill Greenspaces (FROGGs), a recipient of the funding in the centre of the city said, “[This] funding enables us to make a start in transforming an unused space to something that connects people, nature, and our food system.” Their project, The Old Basin Tavern is going to be “working with new people and spaces, preserving old crafts, whilst creating new innovative ways of connecting the past with the modern day world.”

This funding event is the first in series of free public events - the Festival of Growing - which are underway as part of campaign with people being encouraged to get involved with the #ShowWhatYouGrow competition - the winners will win a free foraging workshop in Glasgow.

The month-long campaign will look at how and why people want access to land in Glasgow, the barriers, and the level of demand. Glaswegians are encouraged to take part by submitting their own responses to a ‘land seekers survey’ which will more accurately demonstrate the number of people looking for green space and the variety of reasons they would want to use it for.

To learn more about the Demand for Land campaign, see Glasgow Community Food Network’s website and submit a response to the land seekers survey: www.bit.ly/DemandForLandSurvey

Initial anonymous results from the land seekers surveys show an interest in back courts: “It would be amazing if there was a project that would help communities use their backyards. The maintenance of those gardens is often externally managed and so communities don’t feel like it’s theirs, so gardens just become a space for waste disposal.”

Jenny Reeves, the chair of Glasgow Allotment Forum, said this of the demand for growing spaces in Glasgow: “People don’t realise that the local authority has a duty to provide someone who lives in the City with an allotment plot if that is what they want. With a waiting list of more than 2000 people that means more land needs to be made available for food growing. People have been waiting up to 12 years to get an allotment garden and at the current rate of making provision they’ll have to wait even longer in future. We need effective action to provide land for growing now.”

Looking ahead of the work of the 10 newly funded mini-projects in Glasgow, The National Lottery Community Fund’s Scotland Chair, Kate Still, said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Glasgow Community Food Network on this exciting scheme to implement a transformative food system that will make healthy and affordable food available to people across the city.

“Congratulations to each of ten recipients of the funding and National Lottery players can be proud to know that the money they raise is continuing to make such a difference in local communities in Glasgow.”

This activity is part of the UK-wide Food for the Planet campaign which aims to show how we can contribute to achieve net zero in local areas by taking action on the food served and grown locally. It further connects to the ambitious Glasgow City Food Plan championed by over 80 partners. The 10 -year plan has a set of different actions to make changes ensuring good food for all.

The campaign is made possible with thanks to Food for the Planet, and funders Esmée Fairbairn Foundation & The National Lottery Community Fund.

The campaign is part of Food and Climate Action, a project delivered in partnership by 6 organisations in Glasgow and funded by The National Lottery Climate Action Fund.