❤ LOVE LOCAL ❤
wards towards some of the earlier forms of treatment. First there will be a shared house for people to live in while apprentices, then residential treatment.
within the business to other smaller growers, helping them to succeed and empowering them. Finally, the project is cur- rently at the end of a journey that starts with detox, moves to residential therapeutic support and ends in education, training and employment. While they are already expert in providing education, training and employment, the project is slowly working back-
“If we can generate enough money to be able to set up a residential treatment pro- gramme then we have hit our targets,” Steve explains. There are some volunteers on the programme that have stayed with it for two years and there have been many suc- cess stories. “We have taken people from being homeless, with multiple addictions, un- employed and having no con- tact with their family to being housed, abstinent, employed, engaged in training and with full access to their families in just six months.” “We have to make life with-
bfc_foodlover_may14.pdf 1 22/04/2014 15:03:20
out drugs look more attractive than life with drugs and what more honourable way to make a living than growing food?”
training opportunities includ- ing City & Guilds and an ap- prenticeship programme. Why use food as the busi- ness behind the project? I asked Steve. “I believe that we are designed to grow food. Up until the Second World War, pretty much everybody did grow food. We’re not doing anything new and exciting really, we’re going back a few stages to something a bit more real.”
The produce is grown in urban areas in and around Bristol, with sites at Temple Meads, Whitchurch and Keynsham. The majority of the leaves grown are mustard, rocket and chard, which they are well known for. You may well have tasted them for yourself if you have eaten in
Bristol recently as their order board boasts some of Bristol’s most popular restaurants and delis, including River Cottage Canteen, Better Food Company and Bocabar. The project has three main aims: to remain as a sustain- able organisation generating revenue, to empower local communities and to continue to work with their client group (substance misuse and those from off ending backgrounds). The fi rst aim is being cov-
C M Y CM MY CY CMY K
ered with a move into the area of washed and ready to eat, involving becoming accredited food handlers. Meanwhile, in true entrepreneurial style the project is in the process of setting up a cooperative off er- ing the use of the machinery, infrastructure and expertise
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