New Forest Aquaponics CIC

The Waterside Food Project has been going for over 3 years, and is run by New Forest Aquaponics CIC. 

In 2018 we wrote out our vision for our non profit community interest company (CIC) with our aquaponic farm at the centre, it included everything we wanted to see in our local community and accessible to all.  We were aiming for a demonstrable vision for living modern lives that are kind to our earth and all who live with it. 

The fish in the aquaponics farm need to be fed, and as we dont want to be taking fish from the sea to feed our fish, we needed to feed them in another way.  This means producing our own fish food, which  involves growing insects, such as black soldier flies  (BSF) for the pupae to feed the fish as a protein source. BSF feed on food waste, so I searched for how  I would be able to collect food waste in volume.  My search was answered by a friend Rosie Brent, who was collecting food from M & S once a week for the flowers for her work.  As she didn't need the food, after handing it to her friends and neighbours she gave us the rest, it was all perfectly good edible food, not the waste we were expecting.

It needed eating by people! At first we would walk round our neighbours asking if they would like any of this food as it was only once a week.  We then meet Dawn Cullen and her Waste not want not project running pop up food shares across the waterside.

This led to us working together for a while collecting and sharing food.

The volume of bread quickly became a problem, the shops just produce so much of it.  We found a farmer with cows who would take what was left of the bread. Cow bread is now very much part of our weekly routine, it is sadly junk food for cows. 

 One day two boys were seen taking the cow bead that was  waiting to be loaded in the car and eating it as though they were really hungry. We knew we needed to do more. 

Within hours one of our neighbours produced our very first box, and this allowed us to leave food out for people to take as they walked past the house. It proved very popular, and helped us see how much need for community action was out there. 

This led us to start the Waterside Food Project gaining our own collection slots and working towards opening the community fridge - which was my first lesson in how long things can take and just how hard they can be!

Both food projects in the waterside although working  in very different ways still help and support each other to maximise the number of people we reach. 

Then came our  blue box - which is an old giant cool box from the cruise ships, they changed how they move food around and gave the boxes away.  It works amazingly well and keeps the food super cold without anything more needed than an ice pack in summer. 

As the community fridge opened in Hythe library we wanted to make it easier to share some of the bulk produce we were getting, by cooking ready meals to go in the freezer.  But we needed a kitchen to use.

Blackfield Baptist church came to the rescue and have been amazing at supporting our work and helping us with one of the most important elements for us - building community. 

We've only ever managed to get a few ready meals made as the first week we cooked, Dave Green who is our chief said - go see if anyone would like to eat a hot meal with us. Five people joined us that week, now we serve up to 40 people for a sit down meal and 15 takeaways every week. 

The meals are for everyone to come and socialize, are completely free ( although donations are greatly received), and are all made with the supermarket surplus foods. There is also a table of bread and veg for people to come and collect. 

I was quite happy with all of this, but none of it really addressed the issues I was seeing in the food system, and the number of people affected by its unfairness. By this time I had done a course with the Soil Association called My Food Community and a course by the Landworkers Alliance  - New Entrants Support Scheme, both looking at the UKs’ broken food system, one from the farmers perspective and one from the food  system change maker's perspective.  This showed me we needed to do more, we needed to make  healthy food more accessible for the people of the Waterside,  after all it is a basic human need. 

It had been suggested to me we were in the right position to look at opening a community pantry, but it felt too big a task, after all we didnt have a building to use.  We put the idea on a back burner, and got on with working on moving our aquaponics farm to its new home. 

Then one of the independent shops in Blackfield had to close due to the owners ill health and the lease was to become available, all we needed was some funding. 

Thankfully the funding from Hampshire County Council Household support fund for setting up a community pantry was available and we were very grateful to be awarded enough money to take on a 10 year lease of the building and running costs for 6 months.  This process was my second lesson on just how long everything takes, and how frustrating our systems are!

A new member of our core team Debbie Whitcombe, who has a long career  in community projects has joined us. You will  see her at the pantry keeping everything ( and me ) in order, and we would have not got the funding without her help. 

The building itself was built in 1933 and was originally a butcher shop, and as such it has been built to be cold! We are working on making it warmer. Through its life more and more parts to the building have been added to make it the huge space it is now. This means as well as a community pantry it can be a home to community projects and a meeting place for groups.

On Sunday the 12th we held a community engagement day with the help of Culture in Common, Seekers Create, and Serious Lego. 

Thank you to all who came along and gave us your input to what you would like us to do with the rest of the building. We are in the process of assessing all of your ideas and working towards making as many of them as possible a reality. 

But how will we make this work in the long term? Funding cannot be relied upon, and we have rent and bills to pay for, and this is where you come in. We are asking everyone who would like to use our community pantry and community space to take out a yearly membership of £10 per year. This will help us pay the rent and ensure the pantry and community space thrives.  And even if you don't live in the area but love what we are doing and want to support us you can take out membership, everyone is welcome. 

The idea is for the community to support the community, the pantry cannot work without a place to run from, and by having the building other people can benefit from a social space. 

Can the waterside community demonstrate that this model of community supported supermarkets can work?  Making healthy food affordable and  where possible free for all? 

I haven't been able to find a similar project in the UK that combines all the different aspects we have pulled together. There are some  in the USA and a few in Europe, but would love to hear of any you have come across. 

Blackfield Community Pantry is open to everyone within the community, we are not a food bank, and do not do crisis work, but if you are finding it difficult financially we hope that the community pantry will help . Membership is open to anyone from any background or income to help take financial  pressure off you and allow for you to focus on other areas of your lives that otherwise would be difficult being stabilised.

We hope you will be able to make friends, new connections, learn new skills all while shopping in a way that allows you to support your family with healthier affordable food. 

Pantry Details 

£10 per year membership

£7.50 for up to 15 items from the outside shelves. 

Bread , fruit and veg in the middle isle are free

One shop per week. 

We are working towards being open 3 days a week, but building this slowly while we and our volunteers learn how to run the pantry.

During the last 3 months of 2023 I took part in the My Food Community course run by the Soil Association. The aim of the course is to bring together people who are involved with food systems in the UK to look at how things can be changed to make the landscape of food more sustainable and fair in the UK. 

I was really privileged to take part, I felt the course was  very much above my pay grade ( I don't get paid for my work with the waterside food project) and the other participants all seemed to work for big charities, or food partnerships or councils.

One of the connections I made was Darren Squires who produces the Eat the System podcast.  It looks at all aspects of the UK food systems, listening to his back episodes has been really interesting.

I was very honoured when he asked if he could interview David and myself about our work with New Forest Aquaponics CIC. 

So here it is our first joint podcast interview! 

I think it explains quite well what we are doing and how we are doing it.

A huge thank you to Darren for asking us and his excellent editing skills, and to Rob Green for helping with the sound tech at our end. 

I hope you enjoy and would love to know what ypu think. 

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6PlKuFCj5ld5FC70hwDc0P?si=FlNoa3tPTxSmK78EFal-1A

It is available on all platforms just search for Eat the System 

and please share! 

Or was it an insight to the state of the UK right now. 

I live in the New Forest, not a rich part, but a safe place, with little trouble.  There is an assumption that there is little poverty in this part of the world, and compared to many places there isn’t. But that is changing, and fast. 

Through my non-profit I run  – New Forest Aquaponics CIC – we work alongside a charity and a community group to help to save food waste from supermarkets.  All of us aim to help those who need some extra food to help them through the week (first and foremost), and then to make sure none of the food gets wasted.  

I have a big blue box on my drive. It is an old freezer box that was taken out of a cruise liner at some point.  It works like a giant cool box and works really well as a place for local people to come and help themselves. A little bit like a community fridge, but on my drive. 

What we have found is that over time more and more people are joining the WhatsApp group we use to notify everyone when foods are added to the box. This is great, but is very sad as so many of the people who join it are doing so not to save food waste from the bin, but because they really need some help to make it through to the next payday. 

Last week we had a fairly new volunteer go and pick up the food; she then brought it to our box and in an attempt to give us a night off, didn’t let us know the box was now full.  All of this is my fault for not making sure she knew to let us know the box was full. 

It had some really lovely foods that day, mince and beef burgers, as well as the normal breads and pastries, plus a few vegetables and fruit.  Pictures were taken and shared on WhatsApp, as well as with another food group not too far away. 

We get very very little meat in the collections: it is always regarded as a real treat. I normally freeze any meat, so it can go to those who really need it, either by me (as I see people at the box), or via one of the other groups we work with running  pop up’s, or given out in  a food parcel. 

But because the meat had been put in the box and around 250 people saw the pictures, it became a bit of a race to the box!  And of course it got a little heated, voices raised and accusations of greed flew about.  Not what you would expect on a quiet New Forest road. It took less than 30 minutes for the whole box to empty, disappointing many people. 

All this week I have been answering questions on what happened, and listening to regular users of the box.  

I would like to give my take on why this all happened.   

I do not believe that we are naturally greedy, but I do believe we always are looking for some form of security. Food security is important for us all, and we have a drive to make sure those we love are fed.  For so many the current financial crisis in the UK is hitting really hard. With fuel, electricity and food prices rising, and wages staying the same, fear of how to manage is  taking hold.  Let’s face it, if your budget stays the same, how do you pay all the bills now they have gone up?

About 5 years ago my family hit a point of no money, and to be honest, nothing has improved much financially since then.  But what has changed is our ability to cope with no money, and to learn that however hard it is, we do live in a rich nation, and even with a system that is totally broken, it is 100% better than most countries around the world.  

Through my work in plastic transition, I regularly talk to people from all over the world, including Uganda. They tell me tales of fights over food, and locals who have starved to death. Fighting over food should never, ever happen here in the UK. 

When we are in a state of fear, caused by not knowing how we are going to provide for our loved ones, it can bring out what looks like greed. It is almost impossible to put others first when your mind is plagued with worry over how to cope. I do not blame anyone for trying their best to provide for their family, I have been in that situation, and at times still find myself there. 

Thinking of others has been lost in the stress of modern life; strong communities are too rare these days. But I do believe we can turn this around, by remembering to think of others, and help create an abundance of community. 

My little part in this is The Waterside Food Project, and helping make sure everyone can access at least something to help them get through each day.  What is your part in creating community abundance?

And to the people who use my box – no one needs to be hungry – we will keep doing what we are doing for as long as we can. Please always think of others and only take what you will use, and never fear asking for help if you are in real need.  

I love you all and the joy it brings me to hear your stories of how you are helping others who can’t get to the box. Every time you do this you are creating community abundance.

A full box – it is not this full very often