Food group

The Food Group is working to strengthen the resilience of Brighton & Hove in the production and delivery of food. We aim to develop a relocalised food infrastructure as well as encouraging individual and community action to grow our own food.

To see all events/information on this website relating to this group, click here.

Meeting day/time

Food group meetings are held on the 3rd Tuesday of every month. They are usually at someone's house so that we can share food – please see the Food group event listings or email for details.

Contacting the group

Email: food*at*transitionbrightonandhove.org.uk
Phone: Ann Baldridge on 01273 431700
Join the Food Group's google group! Here you can keep up to date with what's going on with the food group, post items of interest and have group e-discussions. To join, go to this link.

Ongoing projects

Grow Your Neighbour's Own garden share scheme
There are many residents of B&H who don't have gardens but would like to grow their own food, and many other residents who have gardens but aren't able to grow food, whether for time, knowledge or mobility reasons. The Grow Your Neighbour's Own garden share scheme aims to match these people up! All levels of gardening experience welcomed. You can register your interest on the Grow Your Neighbour's Own website at http://grow.transitionbrightonandhove.org.uk or by phone (contact details on the website).

Transition allotment
The TBH allotment is on the eastern side of Whitehawk Hill, on old allotment land that had been left to scrub over for 20 plus years. It is a wildlife haven with stunning views.

We’ve had the plot about a year, which has been spent clearing scrub, digging, planting and tending crops, and harvesting some produce.

Our vision is for a productive, experimental and educational plot. Climate change and peak oil/resource depletion pose serious challenges to our prevailing, globalised, fossil fuel-dependent food system – cities being particularly vulnerable – and so the development and practice of localised, ecological, people-scale models of food production is more important and urgent than ever.

More about the plot

The plot is 2 and a bit standard allotments in size, on sloping ground, with thin chalky soil. It is fairly exposed, particularly to the Easterly winds, though less so to the predominant South-westerlies.

It is a tough bit of land to work, with well-established perennial s (bramble, couch grass, nettles) battling for supremacy. But therein lays the fun and satisfaction, as well as being a valuable opportunity for anyone who’d like to find out how we’re going about taming this ground – for example, many people taking on an allotment will inherit a plot in a similar state unless they’re very fortunate.

We’ve grown modest amounts so far (spuds, squash, raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries, beetroot, onions, courgettes, grain amaranth), however this has been achieved with zero financial input, limited volunteer labour, minimal compost and donations of seed and use of tools from the neighbouring Whitehawk Community Food Project. But from small acorns do mighty oaks grow!

Drawing upon organic and permacultural principles and techniques for the design and cultivation of the plot, we have plans to plant fruit and nut trees, soft fruit, herbs and other perennials, native hedging and trees, as well as increasing the amount of annual veg space.

There are two volunteer days per month, on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays, from 12noon til 4ish. The plot itself is next to the Whitehawk Community Food Project, and detailed directions can be found at www.thefoodproject.org.uk Or you can call Simon on 07842 029640.