OxGrow

Over the academic year 2010-11, four students at the University of Oxford worked in conjunction with community partners to establish OxGrow, the city’s first edible community garden. The project grew out of the Green Project run by Oxford Hub Community Volunteering, and the inspiration that students had
received from attending Oxford Hub’s events on climate change and sustainability.

Each week the project welcomes around 50 of its 400 members drawn from the universities of Oxford and Oxford Brookes and the local community to gain practical knowledge of food growing and sustainability issues. In this way, the project provides a space for the theoretical lessons that are gained by university students to be practically applied and grounded in a fuller knowledge of energy, biodiversity and sustainable living.

The founders of OxGrow perceived that it was crucially important for the project to be developed as a partnership between students and the local community. This is important for community cohesion because 26% of Oxford’s working age population are students, the highest proportion in England and Wales. From the outset, OxGrow developed strong relationships with community groups including Low Carbon West Oxford, Cripley Meadow Allotment Association, and a local farm. Together, OxGrow’s members secured space to establish a Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Living on the site of the old Corpus Christi College sports ground. This centrally-located site was donated to the group last year, and since that time they have developed a community orchard, a native woodland, a beehive and an ecology education centre.

OxGrow’s mission is to instigate and promote better environmental practices, particularly in relation to food production and consumption, and in doing so to encourage a more cohesive, resilient and healthy community. The project’s key aims are to teach people about energy and natural resource use, nurture local biodiversity, encourage healthy living and healthy eating, and provide a space for educational outreach. Workshops are being devised for young children in order to make the garden relevant to different stages in the National Curriculum, in order to encourage school visits to the garden. These outreach projects will have a positive impact on Oxford’s local schools which currently operate well below national levels of attainment, allowing students to put a practical application to the knowledge they have learnt in their science lessons.

Over the coming year, Oxford Hub will continue to support the development of the OxGrow project. A particular area of emphasis will be to transform OxGrow into a fully fledged social enterprise. Renewable energy production will take place on the roof of the pavilion and the converted tennis court, some of the produce from the allotment will be sold, and the space will be made available for rent by community groups. In this way, OxGrow will continue to flourish as a sustainably funded centre promoting sustainable living right at the heart of Oxford.

With thanks to Student Hubs for providing this case study