"Nurturing land, nourishing people"
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.
donate to help us grow.
Your donation will help secure land for regenerative farming practices, strengthen our local food economies, and build your local community.
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Food Next Door is an initiative with the goal of relieving 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.
We're working hard to solve this issue 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.
- Facilitate creation of new distribution channels for the groups to sell their produce.
Our secondary objects are to:
- Build our soils and encourage regenerative farming practices.
- Strengthen local food economies through diversification of produce.
- Strengthen overall community cohesion in the long term.
Pilot Projects
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.
Victoria
Sunraysia Burundian Garden
New South Wales
Community Connections Garden
What's 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?
In The News
Earth Canvas - In Conversation
The panel discussion highlights the creative experiences of the regenerative farmers and the artists, and delves into their respective engagement with the land and their vision for a healthier world.
Food Next Door multi-stakeholder co-op explained
A co-op education resource made by Sidsel Grimstad for University of Newcastle.
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.
From Soil to Everything
Watch the story about Food Next Door Co-Op's purpose, and how we work closely with Mildura Community Water Bank & Out of the Box to achieve our goals.
Mildura community water bank
Mildura Community Water Bank helps small-scale farmers access an affordable price on water to help them grow organic, sustainable produce without the pressures of commodified water pricing.
“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 Values
Nurturing
Food Next Door works to care for the land through growing, distributing and sharing food.
Community
We work to build community through growing, distributing and sharing food.
inclusion
We include people from diverse ethnic backgrounds, religious beliefs, gender and sexual identity, and age, who contribute as farmer and producer, consumer,
volunteer and landholder-members.
We welcome contributions from all Co-op members.
respect
We respect and acknowledge the knowledge and skills of all members. We respect and acknowledge the Traditional Owners on whose land we work.
We recognise their knowledge and skills in actively managing our land and waters for millennia.
Co-operation
We seek ways to work together.
Our Team
Click on our respective photographs to learn more about the team behind Food Next Door.
Shingirai Nyabonda
Executive Officer
Peter Webb
Grower's Mentor
Jennifer Douglas
Board Chair
Jon Armstrong
Board Member
Sophie Baldwin
Board Member
Jean-Paul Birama
Board Member
Domenico de Clario
Board Member
Jean De Dieu Nkurikiye
Board Member
Deborah Bogenhuber
Co-Founder
Reece Cameron
Co-Founder
Ben Dunn
Co-Founder
Sevilla Furness-Holland
Co-Founder
Joel Sindayigaya
Co-Founder
food next door
gratefully acknowledges our supporters & partners
food next door
ARE PROUD MEMBERS OF THE FOLLOWING:
We invite you to learn more
about our funding partners:
SUSTAINABLE TABLE
Sustainable Table is a non-for-profit organisation dedicated to helping people make the connection between food on their plates and the state of our planet.
They work with philanthropic communities to fund projects with organisations such as Food Next Door & Mildura Community Water Bank.
Read more about Food Next Door's involvement with Sustainable Table here.
Read more about Mildura Community Water Bank's involvement with Sustainable Table here.
FOUNDATION FOR RURAL REGIONAL RENEWAL
FRRR A not-for-profit organisation, connecting common purposes and funding from government, business and philanthropy with the genuine local needs of rural people and places.
Since their start in 2000, they’ve delivered $135 million to more than 12,000 projects.
Read more about FRRR here.
get in touch
We’d love to hear from you!