Tim Hughes tells us about recent work completed with Loveland, a community field project based in Falmouth, which invites local people to get involved in food growth and sustainability. With support from our Bridging Communities Fund, Loveland’s work has continued to grow, inviting new audiences to explore their natural surroundings.
Amount of award: £10,000
The goals of this project were to understand the value of Loveland community growing project to the local community, and how to broaden participation to support Loveland’s aims: to build community and of improve access to nature, and healthy, sustainable food.
Key to the project was the ongoing funding of a volunteer coordinator for weekly community sessions. These sessions are free and open to all, providing a welcoming environment where people can be in nature, share food, develop traditional skills, and learn together about how to grow food, and care for both wildlife and one another.
Alongside the weekly sessions, bespoke events, workshops and activities were organised. These included a Bioblitz, where people all ages came together to discover and record wildlife on site; building activities, offering hands-on education of affordable, low impact and natural construction; and a photography workshop, inviting people to share their nature photography skills.. A monthly family day was also set up, leading to more families taking part in sessions. Over a few successive weekends, people at the community sessions also created a new pond, which was further developed by local schoolchildren who planted the surrounding area.
All activities were designed to support and promote Loveland’s vision to improve local food production, build community, increase biodiversity, nurture wellbeing, and offer land-based learning. A combination of informal conversations and feedback forms helped evaluate how well activities met these aims, to in turn inform future events. Funding also boosted staff capacity to support with organising and promoting other activities on site.
In addition to the weekly sessions and bespoke activities, we ran local community outreach. This included a food and nature community conversation, bringing people together from the local area to share what is important to them about local food and nature, what they would like to change, and plans for making this happen. This was reported alongside other community conversations on climate and nature on the Cornwall Climate Action Coalition website. Alongside it, a facilitator training session was held to further develop local skills in hosting inclusive community conversations, leading to the creation of an accompanying video and organiser’s guide. Connections were also strengthened with complementary groups concerned with local food and nature, including the Penryn Highways food bank, and Sustainable Food Cornwall.
A report on the volunteer experience at Loveland was published, based on research from the first Bridging Communities project, and an infographic and report on recent activity at Loveland is in preparation. The research was also presented at the 2025 Royal Geographical Society International Conference.
Excitingly, Loveland was showcased in a webinar and photobook for the “Operation Noah” charity’s national campaign, calling on leaders of the largest church denominations in the UK to better care for the land they own for nature, food security and climate. This celebrated Loveland’s community management of church land, raising its profile and the importance of the work being done. It also prompted more critical reflection of land management, and the tensions between the need to provide an accessible, comfortable space, protecting the land from overdevelopment, and maintaining structure, organisation and coherence.
This funding has been vital in continuing important community engagement and building relationships with organisations and individuals who may not ordinarily have accessed Loveland’s activities. While an application for further research funding was unsuccessful, the volunteer coordinator for the community sessions will be funded through a philanthropic donation. We hope future research and support will allow us to grow this valuable community asset.