Great food, grown local, shared

CONNECT THE PLOTS was formed in June 2019, and since then a number of ‘Plotters’ have met monthly around a dining table to share a meal and discuss issues around climate change.

“I had the idea about six months after Scott Morrison got in, I felt very glum, and it inspired me to do more around climate action in my own area,” Connecting the Plots founder, Elizabeth Collins said.

“I started having monthly potluck lunches with women who were living in the area. We’d have about 15 people turn up and talk about things that we could do here in our own area; formed a bit of a think tank in that sense.

“But then the pandemic struck. That was the time when the seedlings and seeds left the shelves, everybody thought it was all going to be hell and damnation, and we were going to have to grow food for the rest of time.

“That was the moment that inspired me.”

Food security is one of our most basic needs - and provides common ground for real connection between people from all walks of life.

“I have a generational interest in food growing – my grandfather grew a lot of food for his family, and my mum and dad grew as well, so I’ve been genetically inspired by their activities.

“I have found myself in a place where I have plenty of room, sun and lots of water, and I can grow food.”

Swapping ideas, resources, accessing good old-fashioned labour and sharing food are the founding principles of GreenPlot.

“One square metre of soil may not seem like much. But when 300+ of us do it, that’s a heap of vegies and saved seed that didn’t have to travel hundreds, maybe thousands of kilometres.”

The carbon emissions, pesticides and herbicides also saved is significant.

“The instigator of it all was a local organic garlic grower. They donated a little bag of about 20 corns of garlic that had started sprouting and needed planting to Manna Gum Community House. 

“I rang 17 of my local friends who I knew were gardeners, and said, ‘can you just put aside one square metre roughly, to grow this garlic.’

“That gave me the idea of making a collective set of gardeners who put aside one square metre to grow food for the community. Rather than having a community garden, this growing could be done in amongst other things in people’s domestic gardens.

“It took off really quickly.”

A year and a half, two years later and the initiative now has around 90 plotters.

“They’re not all growing food all of the time for this project, but if they have an abundance at one time of year, they’ll donate.

“Some of the plotters are real regulars bringing in food every fortnight.

“It provides an infrastructure through which people with access to food can bring it into a central point, and then it gets distributed.”

The significance of food distributed is helping families, individuals and gardeners on multiple levels.

“Per fortnight we would be handing out about $300 worth of food.

“One man had started growing as a market garden, organic food – he was not up to commercial production level and needed something to do with all the capsicums and tomatoes and has been donating several crates worth of food every fortnight.”

Volunteers assist with packing and a text message system checks in with the families and individuals to confirm they require a box that week.

Fresh, locally grown produce is a welcome addition to the food relief services of Corner Inlet.

“The healthier the community, the better we all are,” Elizabeth said.

“We’re not only helping the environment by keeping food more local, we’re improving the health of families that might not have otherwise been able to get that nutrition.”

A food swap trolley has also been constructed and stands on the grounds of Manna Gum – people who have excess food are welcome to drop it off or take a packet of seeds or produce for a small donation.

For more information on how you can join or volunteer visit projectgreenplot.org.