Local Food Project

About the Project

The West Craigie Local Food Project is an emerging social enterprise which income generates by growing vegetables, salad and herbs and offering composting and gardening courses. It also supports and trains individuals in the criminal justice system in order to help them reintegrate into society. Currently we are involved with groups on community service and prisoners preparing for release. Situated within Craigie’s Farm we supply the café and farm deli daily with freshly harvested produce. We also supply a number of local outlets. The project aims to be:

• economically sustainable – profit generated from selling the produce of our labour (e.g. vegetables, herbs, composting and gardening expertise) is ploughed back to sustain the enterprise and enable it to develop and support the growth of the work and the people involved
• socially relevant – project activities should work towards transforming and addressing the needs of individuals needing care (e.g. our involvement with offenders) offering them satisfying and meaningful opportunities for work and to feel accepted and valued by co-workers
• environmentally responsible – to care for the land by working in harmony with the natural world, treating it well so that the harvest can be gathered without harm to the environment. (e.g. using organic methods where possible, natural products, composting, reusing and recycling, selling our produce locally)

West Craigie Local Food Project currently has 6 staff; a project co-ordinator, head grower, 2 gardeners, a client support worker and an administrator. It is overseen by a management committee made up of people from NHS Lothian, North Edinburgh Trust, Criminal Justice Social Work and interested others who volunteer their time

Funding – we are very grateful to all of our funders who make what we do possible!:

We are also running some free composting workshops thanks to a grant from Almond Neighbourhood Partnership.

Background

In 2008 John Sinclair, the farmer at Craigies offered a polytunnel and some ground on the farm to two health workers to set up a community project supplying vegetables to the farm shop and café.

The project took some time to develop but with the help of the criminal justice system it was established to support people on community sentences and prison leavers do some meaningful work while at the same time get support for any difficulties they may be facing in their lives.

This group was chosen because of their high levels of need; they may be unemployed, have accommodation problems, low literacy levels, poor mental health and addiction problems, some of which lead them back into offending.

We started selling produce in March 2010, and working with individuals serving community sentences we began to develop the initiative. Since then our experience is that the groups who come benefit in several ways; by being in the open countryside, by learning new skills which can lead to employment and getting help to sort out some of their problems. A the same time the environment gains by increasing the supply of locally grown produce and visitors to Craigie's farm gain by being able to eat and buy freshly harvested vegetables in the shop and café.

Volunteering in the Project

We currently do not offer volunteering opportunities, but are planning to develop this in the near future. Email us if you’d like to be kept in touch.

Courses Available

We are planning to run a series of courses at the farm: Growing your own vegetables and Making your own Compost. Watch this space for more details. If you would be interested in attending or want more information please send us an email.