Urban food project brings communities together

Dr Andy Jenkins, urban agriculture expert, created the ‘Think it - Make it - Grow it’ project, which is ongoing in Clayton and Oldham. Dr Jenkins worked alongside local residents to co-create low-cost, low-tech urban food projects, which will grow leafy greens and vegetables over the coming years.

Exploring whether community involvement in the early stages of development can lead to the improved legacy of urban agriculture, the underlying research enables groups to share ideas and design together through fun and playful workshops.

Funded by the University of Salford, Dr Jenkins’s project is supported by UpPlant, The Resonance Centre, Northern Roots, Oldham Council, and Queen’s University Belfast.

Through presentations by invited experts on urban agriculture, horticulture, and design, the community shared ideas, developed the brief for the project, and developed individual designs alongside short-, medium-, and long-term goals.

Then, the participants ideas were combined to create a unified approach and a final proposal, which reflected the community that designed it. Later, these designs were fabricated and installed on site.

Dr Andy Jenkins said: “Bringing communities together and providing an opportunity for them to design their own future can have a great impact on the people involved and future placemaking. This is achieved by embedding a sense of ownership in the design phase and when the project is brought to life in the real world, which means they are far more likely to support the projects on a long-term basis.”

In Clayton, the community project is already producing seedlings for the local community to take away to use in their own gardens. The design made use of an existing growing structure in the car park of The Resonance Centre, which was redesigned by the community to include a seedling bank, a potting shed, and market stall.

The design in Oldham is a pergola type structure, which acts as an entrance to the growing hub in Alexandra Park – this includes growing shelves, tensile strings for climbing plants, and rainwater capture, and raised beds will be added shortly.

Both projects in Clayton and Oldham are now officially open and can be used by the local community. The idea being that the projects will continue to develop over time as the needs of the community change. Dr Andy Jenkins will continue to remain connected to these projects long-term and will assist in planning some of the activities around the projects.

Based on the success of the ‘Think it – Make it – Grow it’ project, Dr Jenkins and Luke Robertson from UpPlant are exploring the future possibilities that the project holds by launching the ‘Think/Make/Grow’ initiative. This initiative will continue to increase access to green and growing spaces, using the tried and tested co-creation approach. However, the initiative will seek to secure external investment from councils, developers, and businesses to deliver small-, medium-, and large-scale green infrastructure and urban agriculture interventions, to benefit local communities.

To find out more about this initiative, please visit thinkmakegrow.co