Lockdown Food Project

Allotment food surplus schemes for local communities have a long pedigree; St Thomas Allotments Association donated food to Exeter’s hospital in the 1920s.

in the summer of 2020 a similar project was developed when a larger-than-usual surplus of unsold seed potatoes had to be written off by the Association’s Trading Sheds, which had closed or reduced their services due to the national lockdown.

COWICK LANE / COMMUNITY LARDER PROJECT

Between June and August 2020 our Cowick Lane Allotment donated 75 kg of potatoes to St Thomas Community Larder. From there, the freshly grown crop was incorporated into dozens of food parcels distributed locally to families in need. R.J. (a plot-holder at Cowick Lane Allotment) led the project, with volunteers sowing, tending and harvesting the crop on an otherwise vacant plot.

GUYS AND HYLTON / FOOD CYCLE PROJECT

Guys allotment was also involved in planting surplus potatoes on a vacant plot: plot no. 30 (this part of the project became known as ‘The G30 Project’). A test dig at the end of June suggested the crop of ‘first earlies’ planted at the start of the lockdown, were almost ready. Local food charities including FoodCycle at Wonford Community Hall, came to collect the potatoes each week from July until the end of September.

FoodCycle, with a demand for130 food parcels each week, asked whether other fresh produce could be donated ? Word spread, and soon, a wide variety of fresh foods were being dropped off at the collection point each week.

Some fruits wouldn’t keep, so Kathy Northcott, one of the originators of the project, and her team of volunteers, set out new plans to make jars of apple sauce and allotment jams, besides growing potatoes and colecting vegetables.

In September, Kathy was asked by BBC Radio Devon to talk about the project - which by then had appeared on the Association’s facebook pages every week !

Now the growing season has come to an end, the projects are completed for the year, but would you, or someone you know, like to come forward to take this (or a similar foodbank project) forward in 2021 ?

Offers of help, please, to: staacommittee@yahoo.com