"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.
Spot the grasshopper! Decades ago these creatures were abundant but due to chemicals they have been slowly dying out. As we are Farming Biodynamically the diversity of good insects appear which shows us that our Farm is healthy for all creatures great and small. The plants growing allow insects habitats to thrive There is the Swan plant for butterfly Old Man saltbush for parasitic wasps rosemary For bees and Lemon Teatree all growing with Love🌱
#biodynamicfarming
#communitydemonstrationfarm
#regenerativefarming
Timeline PhotosA Mildura food co-op has gone through a maize to success. Visit our website to read more 🌾🌽
We shared some amazing food at the maize harvest event, most of it from vegetables grown at the farm. Thank you everyone for sharing this special event with us and for all your support. We are truly grateful🙏❤
And this is how we get dried beans out of their pods after harvest!
Love that swinging technique Kubota.
Kubota and Joselyne learning about soil types in this months module of our small-scale farming training course, from the knowledgeable Ben Mitchell, our Community Farming Coordinator 🧑🏼🌾
#regenerativefarming
#smallscalefarming
#communityfarming
Yesterday our local state MP Ali Cupper joined us for the inaugural maize harvest at the Community Demonstration Farm. There was singing, maize grilling, speeches, and great food. Thank you everyone for coming and for your continuing support.
#communitybuilding
#senseofbelonging
@ali_cupper_mp
#gratitude
#indiversityisstrength
Thanks so much for inviting us. You’re doing amazing things. ❤️
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.
