"nurturing land, nourishing people"
– OUR MISSION STATEMENT
Food Next Door matches under-utilised farmland with landless farmers to support small-scale regenerative farming, growing diverse crops & engaging people from diverse backgrounds to supply food to local households.
In The News
The Wintersun - Episode 5
Local short doco series The Wintersun featured us for their fifth Youtube episode. We talk Local Food Economy, Out of the Box, and Sunraysia's Food Future.
Food Next Door multi-stakeholder co-op explained
A co-op education resource made by Sidsel Grimstad for University of Newcastle.
At the end of March 2021 this little Co-op facilitated regenerative farming practices on 12 acres of land, supported 30 new migrant farmers and their families to farm and be food secure, facilitated 12 ML of water donations to the Mildura Community Water Bank to support water security for small-scale farmers, and had paid $200,000 directly into the pockets of small-scale farmers. Imagine the possibilities with more land! 🌏
Bravoooo
Well done,a fantastic result, great community effort, this farming venture could be replicated anywhere, land, farming people & the desire to create a sustainable future..
Congratulations to everyone involved.
The ginger roots are starting to show, we are so excited to see this new crop for our region thriving in the tunnel house. We can't wait for this slow-growing crop to be harvested and distributed through Out of the Box Sunraysia 🌿
We hosted two generous water donors at the farm this week who donated irrigation water to the Mildura Community Water Bank . We're so grateful to be supported by our community, which helps the Co-op support small-scale farmers - keeping the money local, not to mention food, water and love 🥰
Can anyone guess what this is? A new crop at the Community Demonstration Farm and something not easy to find locally... hopefully arriving in your boxes soon and perfect for winter soups as the cold weather sets in 🌱
Leaf celery?
Looks like celery
Aaaand that's a wrap! Our first maize season at the Community Farm is over. Preparation begins for the next season, always nurturing our soils as the basis for everything we do.
Why a Co-Op?
Co-operatives are organisations owned by members for the benefit of members. They are different from other organisations because their priority is to have social and economic impact. Food Next Door also aims to have an environmental impact.
Co-ops around the world are guided by the Co-Operative Principles, which include democracy, open and inclusive voluntary membership, concern for community, and education.
Interested in becoming a member of Food Next Door?
What We do
Visions & Objectives
The primary object of Food Next Door is to relieve the suffering or distress suffered by newly arrived migrants and refugee groups, particularly those without access to land and living in rural and regional areas, by supporting these groups to re-engage in farming and grow food, including their traditional foods.
This will be achieved by, amongst other things:
• Sourcing and negotiating access to land for the groups to use for farming
• Providing ongoing assistance and support to the groups to farm the land.
• Creating new distribution channels for the groups to sell their produce.
Our secondary objects are to:
· Strengthen overall community cohesion in the long term.
· Build our soils and encourage regenerative farming practices.
· Increase the number of small-scale farms to provide high quality produce to local markets, and
· Strengthen local food economies through diversification of produce.
Food Next Door’s vision is for under-utilised and vacant farmland to be transformed into productive foodscapes using regenerative farming practices.
We are establishing a community demonstration farm based in Mildura, north-west Victoria, to progress this vision.
Pilot Projects
Victoria
Sunraysia Burundian Garden
New South Wales
Community Connections Garden
Out of the Box
Food Next Door run a weekly local produce box to supply our community with local produce grown by small-scale regenerative farmers.
The enterprise is based on three connected principles:
· Fair returns to growers
· Building community, and
· Regenerating our soils.
Mildura community water bank
Mildura Community Water Bank will be an innovative venture to assist small-scale farmers in securing water at a reasonable, stable price, to be launched in the second half of 2020.
“This project is very important for the local community, helping the small-scale farmers to get access to affordable irrigation water for their farms to produce local fresh crops, to produce vegetables at a reasonable price that is affordable by everyone.”
– Jules Kangeta, Project Manager
Our Team
We’re run by community minded leaders – Passionate, Knowledgable and Hardworking.
Click on our respective photographs to learn more about the team behind Food Next Door.
Deborah Bogenhuber
Executive Officer
Ben Dunn
Chairperson & Co-Founder
Reece Cameron
Director & Co-Founder
Sevilla Furness-Holland
Director & Co-Founder
Joselyne Majambere
Director
Jennifer Douglas
Director
Kubota Songa
Director
Darryl Lang
Director
Peter Webb
Grower's Mentor
Our Advisory Board
food next door
gratefully acknowledges our
supporters & partners
food next door
ARE PROUD MEMBERS OF THE FOLLOWING:
get in touch
We’d love to hear from you!
If you’d like to join Food Next Door Co-Op as a member, kindly click here.
If you’d like to try a week of Out of the Box’s fresh subscription produce, look here.
