Background

Middlesbrough Urban Growing project is an annual programme of food growing in public spaces, leading to a ‘town meal’.

The project aims to make people more aware of issues like food miles, and allows experimentation with productive, multi-functional green spaces. The long-term aim is for Middlesbrough to become a self-sustainable town by growing its own produce.

The programme works with the seasons - propagating in the spring, growing in the summer, harvesting in the autumn - and culminates in September with a town meal.

The project takes place at 264 locations across the town. The activities include:

• the use and improvement of allotment sites
• the provision of vocational and community-based training in horticulture
• a town-wide meal
• the creation of local food co-operatives
• the establishment of a food policy council.

Community ownership, participation and inter-generational working underpin the entire approach, notably through the help of schools, community groups and junior health trainers.

The programme began as a Designs of the time 2007 project, with the Design Council and regional development agency One North East. It was enthusiastically taken up by Middlesbrough Council and third-sector partners such as Middlesbrough Environment City and Groundwork.

Each element of the project is delivered by different partners. For example, Middlesbrough Environment City employs a project officer and Groundwork South Tees has the responsibility for the delivery of ‘grow-zones’ - growing containers placed in public spaces such as school grounds.

In its first year (2007), over 2,500 people were fed at the town meal, which was attended by 8,000 people. In 2009 the project secured funding from the Healthy Community Challenge Fund (HCCF) run by the Department of Health and the Department for Children, Schools and Families.