Fleur Anderson & Kirsty Merritt - Home Harvest Festival
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From the 2015 Future of Local Food Conference. See futureoflocalfood.org.au for more information.
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Fleur Anderson & Kirsty Merritt - Home Harvest Festival
- 1. Home Harvest Feast A shared services partnership- Nillumbik Shire and Banyule City Councils. Celebrates local food and the home grower. Creates better connectivity through the conversation of food. Growers donate home grown produce, we collect it and community cooks and students create a two course local seasonal vegetarian meal. 350 to 400 people participants In its fifth year.
- 2. • Background • Partnerships • Grower Stories • Evaluation • Lessons Learned • Future Opportunities • How to Hold Your Own Feast The Story
- 3. Background
- 4. “The enjoyment of the Home Harvest Feast is it’s a chance to work with the unknown – how much is going to come in and what is going to come in at that time. Then the kind of innovations and ideas of what we can do with the produce that’s come in - at the same time making it delicious and satisfying as many tastebuds as possible. Also the chance to just work with a number of volunteers who are just so eager to help and bring their own sets of abilities – some far exceed what I have and then there are others that are eager to learn.” Duang, Real Food Catering
- 9. Grower’s Feedback What motivated Growers to participate in the Feast? Sharing, engaging my daughter in fresh and home grown food and meeting like minded locals I think it is a great idea to celebrate and share what we have to offer from our gardens or in my case my time as a volunteer. Getting to be a part of our new local community and meeting like-minded people.
- 10. Evaluation : Feast Benefits for Growers?
- 11. Evaluation : Feast Benefits for Growers?
- 12. Evaluation : Feast Benefits for Growers?
- 13. What have we learned? Connectivity is the main driver for community participation
- 14. What have we learned? Strength of volunteerism and partnerships
- 15. What have we learned? Have confidence in the produce
- 16. What have we learned? A broad reach of benefits for Council, partners and the community
- 17. Future Opportunities? Connecting with a different group of potential growers through library story times
- 18. Want To Have Your Own Feast? Model is flexible and highly transferable- inner city, middle, peri-urban and regional governmental areas can all participate. • Connect with existing community networks and partner organisations • Know you can work in with any budget. Feast of any scale or type from a BYO picnic to a gourmet three course meal! • Work with local businesses in sponsorship agreements. Explore opportunities for both organisations. • Be realistic about the woman (or man) hours required to pull it off from the event coordinator to all the volunteers over the weekend of the Feast.
- 19. Any questions?
- 20. Talk to Us Kirsty Merritt, Environmental Project Officer, Nillumbik Shire Council 9433 3206 or Kirsty.Merritt@nillumbik.vic.gov.au Fleur Anderson, Environment Officer, Banyule City Council 9457 9828 or Fleur.Anderson@banyule.vic.gov.au
Editor's Notes
- Fleur to speak What is the HHF? HHF is a community meal created using home-grown produce supplied by home and community garden growers. With the aim to: Increase the number of new and beginner gardeners Deliver an event that celebrates local food and the people behind the food – seasonal, organic, vegetarian food Promote healthy eating and increase veggie intake Also – Harvest Month – four weeks of activities around local food such as workshops and film screenings organised by Local Food Connect. Participants are made up around 100 Growers plus their guests, volunteers, students, working group members etc.
- Kirsty to speak Now we’re going to the tell you the story of the Feast: starting with the background and inception…we’ll hear from some of the partners that have been key to the delivery and success of the Feast and tell you about some of the Growers, their stories and their motivations for participating. We carry out successful post Feast surveys so we’ll share with you some of our findings from these, touch on some of the lessons we have learned over the past four years and look at what the future holds. We’ll wrap up by covering the key factors to consider when holding your own Feast.
- Kirsty – Nillumbik background. Launch of the Home Harvest booklet – a way to engage people in the booklet and growing their own food – making it more than just another booklet sitting on a Council brochure stand. Coincided with the post bushfire recovery taking place in Nillumbik and financial support was provided from Victorian Bushfire Appeal – Health and Well Being Older People Program. First Home Harvest Feast was run in partnership with Whittlesea City Council. Strong environmental and sustainability objectives behind the Feast – organic gardening principles, reducing food miles. However there has always been a community focus, this has grown with the different partners…Banyule partnered in the second year at the suggestion of a grower participating from their municipality. Whittlesea still very supportive, however a change a date from April to March resulted in a clash of events. Fleur – Banyule background- Grow it local food movement, increase in TT Groups, Food Swaps, Community Plan with aspiration of Living more sustainably. Through our Stewardship Plan Wanting to support and celebrate local seasonal food.-44% of an individuals ecological footprint is from food choices, Move towards growing your own to reduce this impact. Budget and Environmental Economics Social ROI - $1 : $4.
- Kirsty Technical difficulties could not include video of Duang; Real Food Catering who has been involved since the first Feast – part of the catering in all but one where she mentored the caterers. Why involved – love food, everything food – growing, preparing, cooking, preserving. Enjoyment of the Feast is working with the unknown – what will come in and how much – and the innovations to deal with this and still make it delicious and a meal for the growers to be proud of. Also working with volunteers who are eager to help and bring their own sets of abilities – an opportunity for all to learn. The challenges come from the same thing as enjoyment – the unknowns with the produce – all the challenges you can grow from and learn from so each year the Feast improves.
- Kirsty The Feast’s success draws from the strength of it’s partners and sponsors
- Kirsty – diversity of growers – where they grow and what they contribute, Nillumbik peri-urban and Banyule middle-ring story of The Veggie Empire – Since its inception the Home Harvest Feast has been supported by a group known as The Veggie Empire. The Empire are committed urban agriculturalists who have worked in a variety of local settings including a disability service, Edendale Farm and other community gardening projects in both Nillumbik and Banyule as they further their food production skills. The feast has enabled the Empire to genuinely engage with the community and share their skills and amazing chemical free produce. In addition to participating in the Feast the team have provided veggie seedlings to other participants to kick start their gardens in preparation for the feast. The Veggie Empire’s latest project is a land share urban agriculture system in Greensborough known as Beales Road Farm that aims to grow and distribute food within a very local area from which they plan to support the feast for the fifth year in 2016.
- Fleur – Mala story, Daughter Asha, who was diagnosed with leukaemia when she was only two years old. "I started thinking of growing our own food; chemical free and organic." "Her immune system was down so I thought gardening was a good way to get her out of the house." The family started with two raised veggie beds and within a year, Mrs Plymin and little Asha had gone from knowing nothing about gardening to supplying Banyule's Home Harvest Feast with zucchinis and silver beet. Mala has consistantly bought the some of the most colourful boxes of veggies in Banyule.
- Fleur – Yuki story. Hibi Farm collective – 9 households sharing labour and resources on suburban blocks in Heidelberg West. “Hibi farmers” were already active in the food area through transition towns movement, the Feast celebrates their choice to increase their FOOD Security, Utilise sustainable gardening practices such as IPM, decrease their FOOD MILES and choose LOCAL, SEASONAL, FRESH, ORGANIC and has enabled them to share their stories/knowledge/experiences with the community.
- Kirsty Every year we send out a post Feast survey to get feedback from Growers ONLY. For the 2015 we had a 36% response rate. 10-20% is a common average survey response rate. Survey results on motivation show the primary reason for growers participating in the Feast is – connectivity – the idea of sharing ideas and a meal with like minded people and to build connections in their local community. Growing your own veggies is secondary.
- Fleur to cover graph slides As a result of their participation in the Feast Growers have tried new things in their garden – Compost and growing from seed around 40% with chemical free gardening and composting around 30% one of the responses under other was “the Feast helped to re-motivate me in general”
- Following on from previous slide… 96% of respondents believe the Feast helps to promote community spirt. Some respondents reported how they used the Feast to make connections and these have led to new opportunities. Challenge – connecting growers at the Feast – some people who attend alone still feel isolated
- Many growers bring guests to the Feast and as a result over 55% said their guests would participate in next years feast. With changing attitude to local seasonal fresh food next. One of the other responses was to start shopping more locally.
- FA We started thinking the main driver was people’s interest in veggie gardening or wanting to start veggie gardening. Social connectedness refers to the relationships people have with others and the benefits these relationships can bring to the individual as well as to society. It includes relationships with family, friends, colleagues and neighbours, as well as connections people make through paid work, sport and other leisure activities, or through voluntary work or community service. These relationships and connections can be a source of enjoyment and support. They help people to feel they belong and have a part to play in society. People who feel socially connected also contribute towards building communities and society. They help to create what is sometimes called “social capital”, the networks that help society to function effectively.
- Around 20 volunteers help with the preparation, cooking, serving of the HHF – and the cleaning up after! Around 300 volunteer hours over the three days to run the Feast. As well as around 30 students working in shifts from Friday – Sunday. However the volunteerism is much more than just over the Feast weekend. The Growers are volunteering to grow and donate produce, members of the committee are volunteering their time to plan the Feast and volunteers are running other events and activities as part of Harvest Month. Several indicators are used to measure social connectedness. Volunteering is one these indicator is about voluntary work done for organisations or groups. Volunteering can help to build networks of trust and mutual support that sustain people through difficult times and reinforce social cohesion. Volunteering is ultimately about helping others and having an impact on people’s wellbeing. What better way is there to connect with your commmunity and give a little back? Partnerships were spoken about earlier.
- The first year we had no idea what to expect and from there each year the confidence has grown we will receive what we need. Yes we do purchase some supplementary produce but this is limited and we try to source it from local farmers. Not only is it confidence in the produce it’s the confidence in the cooks that they will be able to deliver a delicious meal from what comes in. The amount and diversity – the generosity of growers. Most unusual veg e.g. largest contributor ?
- We are constantly learning about connections that have been created through HH. A phone call or email will reveal that……e.g. of best connection?
- We haven’t stopped learning and always looking for new opportunities. They often present themselves to us through ideas from the growers and partners and it just has to be balanced up with capacity. Library activity is also just a great opportunity to deliver some of the objectives for the Feast around healthy eating, even if they don’t sign up as growers, hopefully participating in the story time will have a positive impact