Our scrumptious farm project in Sutton has recently had an exciting opportunity for expansion, and you can be involved. But for it to happen, we need to spread this message from Sutton Community Farm founder Anna Francis far and wide….

London’s Community Farm – a crazy idea that might just work?

Have you ever dreamt about owning a place in the country? An amazing opportunity has come up for us to buy some land together in south London: 35 acres including an existing veg farm and nursery, woodlands, farm shop, bungalow, glass houses and polytunnels.

Together we could buy it and convert it into a community farm for people to grow (organic) fruit and veg together, ensure we all have access to fresh affordable healthy produce, share skills, offer training to schools, disability groups and everyone else… and much much more.

The land is £1.15m so we only need 780 of us to pledge £1500 each (or more or less). With 7 million people living in London surely we can do it?! In just the last few days we’ve already raised £450,000. Join the Facebook group to keep updated.

Click here for details of the plot

And here are some examples where communities have got together and bought farms elsewhere e.g. www.thecommunityfarm.co.uk

Time is of the essence: we only found out about the opportunity last week and we need to submit an offer in the next two weeks. At this stage we only need to know if you are willing to pledge – please email me (anna.francis@bioregional.com) with your name and the amount you will pledge. And please forward to as many people as you think might be interested… If we get enough people we will issue a community share offer, if not, we won't go ahead. So what have we got to lose?

More Information

The exact details of the share offer and management haven't been defined yet (we've only had a week!) but there are lots of successful examples which we can emulate and adapt.

Community shares: there are loads of examples of people getting together and buying farms, post offices, wind turbines etc. The way these shares work is that people invest a certain amount, get benefits such as discounted produce, are part of a worthwhile project, get involved in activity days etc (if desired) and the shares can be sold (for original price) if they need the money back.

Management: the farm would be run by the farm team including experienced growers, project manager, training staff and shop assistants. Quarterly steering group meetings would be held to discuss progress and all shareholders would be invited to the Annual General Meeting, as well as regular activity days and events and the opportunity to bring family and friends to visit their farm.

For further information contact: Anna Francis, anna.francis@bioregional.com 07939 060688  www.suttoncommunityfarm.org.uk