How To Start A Food Is Free Project!

by Andrew Martin, Collective Evolution

“Never underestimate your power to inspire and affect your community around you. Even the smallest of acts can really ripple out.” – John VanDeusen Edwards, Founder of The Food is Free Project

Food is Free Project

The Food is Free Project grows community and food while helping people gain independence from a broken agricultural system. The Food is Free Project is a community building and gardening movement that launched in January of 2012. The project is a combination of guerrilla gardening and the Food is Free concept, developed to help provide a platform for community interaction which facilitates collaboration and connection. Over 300 cities around the world have started Food is Free Projects.

The gardens are built and offered for free using salvaged resources that would otherwise be headed to the landfill. By using drought-tolerant, wicking bed gardens, these low maintenance gardens only need to be watered every 2-4 weeks. This simple tool introduces people to a very easy method of growing organic food with very little work. A wide variety of vegetables along the block promote neighbors to interact and connect, strengthening our communities while empowering them to grow their own food.

The Current Industrial Model of Agriculture

Under a system which is continually growing in use of energy and resources, it will be difficult to build a sustainable agricultural model which serves humanity. While there may well be new methods and techniques of farming more productively, an ever growing number of mouths to feed will soon diminish any incremental efficiency and productivity gains. The decentralisation of local systems such as the Food is Free project, which focuses on localisation, will help limit and reduce the reliance on energy intensive highly polluting farm inputs.

Time to Take Back Food Production

It’s time we take back our food and meet our neighbors. Invite your friends to join the mission. Transform your own neighborhood by planting a community garden in your front yard. The Food is Free Project not only transforms neighborhood blocks, but has installed gardens at elementary schools, community arts spaces, farmer’s markets, churches, and small businesses.

The Food is Free movement is creating models for how to grow food in unused public spaces that provide opportunities for people to experience fresh, healthy, organic food, and demonstrating the power of community when we come together for a cause that’s greater than ourselves. Food is Free encourages people to share what has worked through their online platform of social media at #foodisfree to help facilitate positive change.

How to Start a Food is Free Project

To the right is a link to ‘How to Start a Food is Free Project Guide.’ Click the image to read the guide. Right click and “save link as” to download it. The team at Food is Free wanted it to be a mix of inspiration and action steps without being too overwhelming. They share more detailed guides and blog posts as we move forward as well as an FAQ. Plant a front yard garden and share the harvest this season and join the ‪#‎foodisfree‬ movement.

Check out the Food is Free Laneway in Ballarat – A Truly Inspiring Story 

Article by Andrew Martin, author of  Rethink…Your world, Your future. and One ~ A Survival Guide for the Future… 

Excerpts taken from Rethink…Your world, Your future.

Sources: http://foodisfreeproject.org/

Happen Films https://www.youtube.com/user/happenfilms

Andrew Martin Andrew is passionate about helping raise awareness and living sustainably. He is editor of www.onenesspublishing.com and author of One ~ A Survival Guide for the Future…and Rethink…Your world, Your future.

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2016/01/14/how-to-start-a-food-is-free-project/