The Foodshare Story
Foodshare is a not-for-profit project, run by a team of volunteers around the world. It started on the outskirts of Cambridge, England in June 2009 when recording artist Mark Desvaux, suffering from "Computer Butt Syndrome" (spending too much time in front of a computer) decided to get an allotment instead of joining the gym.
Folklore has it that he and co-founder Dan Spencer, a Cambridge entrepreneur, were one day trying to exchange surplus courgettes with other allotment holders, only to find that everyone had courgettes coming out of their ears.
With one phone call to the local Children's Hospice, they discovered a very grateful recipient. A "Donation Station" was set up on the allotment for others to donate their surplus and within three months over £1,000 of fresh produce was collected.
Dan and Mark put the Foodshare model up on the Internet to encourage others to start their own Foodshare groups. Within a few weeks groups across the UK and around the world from New Zealand to New York were popping up.
The rest, as they say, is history!
If you are interested in joining the Foodshare HQ team, please get in touch
FOODSHARE TIMELINE - THE STORY SO FAR
Jul to August 2009
• Foodshare launches on the allotment in Milton, a small village north of Cambridge. Over £1,000 of produce donated to the Milton Children’s Hospice.
Sept to Dec 2009
• Foodshare web site launches (www.foodshare.co.uk). Allotments in the UK and around the world (from New York to New Zealand) sign up.
• BBC1 Breakfast TV runs multiple features on Foodshare.
• Foodshare is the main headline on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire news.
• Media coverage grows with lots of local and regional newspapers picking up the story.
• Over four hours of radio interviews and features.
• Foodshare invited to exhibit at the Cambridge Garden and Produce festival. More “Foodsharers” sign up.
• Talks with the local Primary School begin about a school Foodshare scheme.
• The local church launches the UK’s first Foodshare scheme for churches, where parishioners collect and deliver surplus produce from neighbours to a local charity.
• The winners of the Milton Village vegetable show decide to collectively donate their prize-winning vegetables to the Milton Children’s Hospice.
• Cambridge University invites Foodshare to a brainstorming day with top PhD and Masters students.
Jan 2010
• Over 100 charities sign up in seven days to become Foodshare recipients. Everyone from homeless shelters to care home (including Marie Curie), from Hospices to food outreach programmes sign up. Homeless Link, the national body overseeing Homeless Shelters in the UK, endorses the project.
• Foodshare set up a formal committee and form a constitution.
• “Growing to Give Launches”. The RHS endorses the project with plans to promote to their 10,000 schools.
• The National Society for Allotments and Leisure Gardeners (NSALG) endorse the project, promoting to their 100,000 members.
Feb 2010
• An audience of 2.5m hear about Foodshare on Radio 4 Gardeners’ Question Time (the UK’s most popular radio show) with overwhelming endorsement from the expert panel.
• The RHS Schools for Gardening Programme, promote Foodshare to its members.
• Over twenty seven schools (5,000 primary school children) immediately sign up to the Foodshare “Growing to Give” project, creating a Foodshare bed at their school allotment to grow directly for a local charity.
• More endorsement from wonderful people including Bob Flowerdew, Penney Poyzer, Anne Swithinbank, Eric Robson, Matthew Wilson & Brigit Strawbridge.
March 2010
• Milton Primary School, pilots the Foodshare “Harvest Heroes” project, with every child in the school nurturing their own plant from seed to seedling in the classroom, and then taking it home to continue growing with their families. Fifty percent of the harvest is donated to the local Foodshare charity, whilst the other half is enjoyed by the family. For many will be the first produce they have grown at home.
• Local Allotment starts donating surplus seeds to the school gardening club.
• The school “Growing to Give” project starts to branch out to Kitchen Gardeners who cut up lawn to create a dedicated Foodshare bed.
• Maggi Smith, who set up the first ever school’s gardening initiative - Garden Organic for Schools (6,000 schools) - joins the Foodshare Advisory Team.
April 2010
• Garden Organic (formerly Henry Doubleday Research Association) partner with Foodshare to integrate into the Schools programme which reaches 6,000 schools.
• First ever Foodshare assembly as primary school children get excited about Growing to Give
• Rob Hopkins of Transition Town hears about Foodshare.
• Foodshare becomes a national member of Sustain's "Food Growing in Every School" campaign.
May 2010
• Foodshare gets a dedicated hour on BBC Radio Eastern Counties (12th May, 9pm)
• Foodshare in the classroom! School talks on the importance of growing, sharing and bees.
• Foodshare talk with local Transition Town groups about how to work together.
• Big article on Foodshare in the National Society of Allotments & Leisure Gardener's magazine (100,000 members)
• Foodshare starts looking for sponsors to fund the project.
• Milton Primary School win "Head of Site" award at the "Chelsea Flower Show for Schools" for their Foodshare "Growing to Give" bed. (RHS Budding Gardener's Competition).
June 2010
• Writer and BBC broadcaster Penney Poyzer is Foodshare's first Patron ("100 Woman Who Changed The World" The Independent")
• Foodshare invited to join Sustain's "Campaign for Food Growing in Schools" along with the RHS, Garden Organic and other national bodies.
• Foodshare is the lead feature article in 'Grow Your Own' magazine.
• ITV broadcast feature on "Growing to Give" - Milton Primary School and the Children's Hospice.
July 2010
• Works starts on a Foodshare plan to help reduce Allotment Waiting Lists
• Foodshare scheme continues to grow as with new members signing up daily.
August 2010
• First donations received as Foodshare starts a funding drive
• Foodshare featured on BBC web site.
