Grow a Row in Cambridge

Back in April, we were just getting used to lockdown, and if you were brave enough to venture into a supermarket, a lot of the shelves were bare – people were panic buying fruit and veg as well as toilet paper and pasta. There were rumours of food shortages to come, as lorries bringing imports from Spain might not be able to enter the country, and what if the drivers caught the virus…

At Cambridge Sustainable Food, an emergency response to the Covid-19 pandemic had quickly been set up together with fellow members of the Food Poverty Alliance, with Community Food Hubs opening around the city - now there are eight. As in other cities, people were mobilising to form mutual aid groups, and starting to look out for their elderly or vulnerable neighbours. We put two and two together and wondered how much extra food could be grown within the city, to support local communities, and take advantage of the new-found enthusiasm for gardening that seemed to be developing. So “Grow a Row” was born: a campaign to encourage people to plant extra crops and donate them to help others who found themselves in need of help. We contacted allotment societies and neighbourhood groups, and spread the word on social media.

George Street Garden Share collection boxes

The seeds were sown, although the idea took a while to grow. Garden centres were closed, and compost had also become a rare, sought-after item, like pasta and loo roll.  But gradually, we saw it take hold, and built a network of community-minded groups and individuals who take the trouble to pick and deliver fresh produce to their neighbourhood Community Food Hub.    

Neighbours in George Street in the city organised to contribute as a group, and even grew pots of windowsill herbs to donate to their local Community Food Hub in Arbury,  in their “Adopt a herb” initiative.   

From a nearby village, Thriplow, we have had huge vegetable donations from a community project called CoVeg. This was initiated by a local farmer who kindly contributed two fields: one he has cultivated himself to donate the produce, using farm machinery, and the other is named the “Chaos Garden”, and cultivated by the members of the community. Starting with broad beans early in the Summer, they have brought large successive harvests to us, including huge numbers of pumpkins recently.

George Street’s “Adopt a herb” scheme

Vegetable donations

Another Community Allotment on the edge of the city in Histon planted an extra piece of land as a “City Garden” and made steady deliveries throughout the season. Various plot holders from Old Chesterton Allotments site got in touch with us, so we put them in touch with each other so they could take it in turns to deliver to their local hub in in East Chesterton – they made a WhatsApp group, what else!

Fen End Farm in Cottenham is a very special project, who delivered veg most weeks during the Summer. This farm works uses the permaculture method, and works with the Headway organisation, supporting people with brain injuries, who come to work on the farm and grow the veg.

Many wonderful people have also just turned up at our redistribution centre in Buchan Street; someone who lived on an orchard and got up early for a couple of weeks to bring us 20 kilos of plums a day; another person who cycled up with a 17 kilo pumpkin in the bike trailer!

Vegetable donations from Old Chesterton Allotments

Plum donations

This amazing community effort saw just under 2 tonnes of fresh produce donated through the Grow a Row campaign, which went towards our emergency food response.

We are also hugely grateful to CoFarm, Cambridge’s first community farm, who donated all of their beautiful, organic and often unusual vegetables to our Community Food Hubs in their first year of growing. We are excited to see what their future holds as the farm grows and develops.

This new year we are asking the community once again to grow and donate extra fresh fruit, veg and herbs to go towards Cambridge’s emergency food response. You don’t have to be an experience grower to help out – we welcome growers old and new! If you could help support the community and grow a row extra, please contact info@cambridgesustainablefood.org.