"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
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.
Tune in to @__inspires live tomorrow (Thursday) at midday AEDT to hear our co-founder and Executive Officer Deb Bogenhuber share hers, and our story.
#empathy
#buildingcommunitythroughfood
#nurturinglandnourishingpeople
The #communitydemonstrationfarm is looking a-maizing 😄
#communityfarming
#smallscalefarming
Ben and joselyne made tunnel houses for the lettuce yesterday 🌱 Should make the little plants a bit more comfortable in this heat!
#foodnextdoortrainingprogram
#smallscalefarming
#communityfarming
Those carrots from the #communitydemonstrationfarm are SO good roasted whole. Throw some roast beetroots (golden and red) and chopped spring onion from @bensbonafidefood , tarragon and feta from @bethunelanedairy into a bowl with the roasted carrots. Whisk some @bawdensfarm olive oil & fresh lemon and toss it all together. AMAZING and 100% local 😁
#knowwhereyourfoodcomesfrom
#supportlocal
Joselyne helped Peter harvest, process and pack carrots today at the #communitydemonstrationfarm ready for #outoftheboxsunraysia on Thursday.
#communityfarming
#biodynamicfarming
#knowwhereyourfoodcomesfrom
These carrots are the best!
Woweee those carrots look good
It’s caterpillar season! Thanks @peter.webb.75470 for teaching us how to use the spray unit and dipel, we treated two patches of maize at the #riverfarm today.
#organicpesticide
#farminglife
#communityfarming
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.
