Fair Food

One of the first activities carried out as part of the Project was the creation of the Fair Food Strategy. The Strategy sets out how Shetland will become a food equitable community and was published in September 2020.

Despite being in a lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a positive was that more households started growing food for the first time. There is an appetite, amongst community groups, to stimulate more growing, within their communities. During lockdown, one Community Anchor Organisation decided to distribute three packets of easy to grow seeds, along with a voucher for pots and compost available through local shops, to all households. Feedback indicates that these packs were a real boost, and used by many.  A local plant swap also started, through local shops.

Grow Shetland is a 3 year Project (2021-2024), being delivered by Transition Turriefield, supported by the Fair Food Project. The purpose is to support the Shetland community to:

• Grow more of its own fruit and vegetables
• Increase access to affordable food
• Encourage healthy eating. 

Grow Shetland works with individuals, groups, communities and schools to create new growing spaces and take up food growing, fresh food sharing, cooking and eating.  In the first few months support was given to a number of community groups, schools and residential establishments.  Support has also been provided to families, through the local housing association and through a ‘Growing Undercover Shetland’ social media group with over 1,500 members, many of whom were new to growing fruit and vegetables during the pandemic.

The Grow Shetland website launched in January 2022, providing an online hub for access to Shetland specific growing information and resources.

In addition to this, funding and support was also given to Northmavine Community Development Company and their Growing Local project. Growing Local aims to support local growing and food production by individuals and groups in Northmavine. The Northmavine Community Development Company website gives a brief background to the project, including recipes and links to further growing resources.