Growers Grants for Black and People of Colour
— Illustration by Javie Huxley
DEBRIEF BY SAM SIVA & JOSINA CALLISTEIt all began at the end of 2020, when Jess from Public Library Quilts and Sui from Decolonise the Garden launched a fundraiser and raffle to raise money for LION’s Growers Grants project. As part of the fundraiser, a handmade quilt would be awarded to a randomly selected entrant. In December, hundreds of naturally dyed fabrics began to make their way to Jess. Jess designed and sewed the quilt, which caught the attention of material culture magazine Tatter, as well as quilt and natural dye enthusiasts around the world. Once the magnificent double-sided quilt was completed, we began the fundraiser and raffle entry in April and over the course of the month we were able to raise over £18,000! It was incredibly heart-warming to receive so much support knowing that the funds will go on to support Black growers and growers of colour.
— Jess, Sui, Sam and Josina meet with the completed quilt
We received the money in May and got to work. The idea of the Growers Grants had been in perculation since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, however, limited capacity pushed it to the backburner. Now. not needing to crowdfund to facilitate the creation of grants, we could focus on creating an application and administration process. The growers grants working group set our minds together to plan the growers grants. Creating a budget, timeline and framework of awards, we spent the summer of 2021 refining the application, creating the tiers and commissioning artwork from Javie Huxley. We recruited four panellists for decision-making: former LION member, Laurèl Hadleigh, composer Dr Hannah Jones, community organiser and artist Andre Reid, landworker and actionist Jyoti Fernandez. During this period of time, we were also able to source match funding increasing the number of grants we could distribute.
We opened applications on August 20th and closed them on September 12th 2021. There were a total of 334 applications, requesting a total of £191,200. Originally, we had a meagre £36,000 to distribute, but the panellists secured an additional £15,000 while assessing the applications. Unfortunately, there was still a £131,200 excess over what was available. We really wish we could have supported more people with these grants. In writing about the process, we hope to inspire and demonstrate a requisite for larger organisations and institutions to take on the responsibility of financially supporting small racialised growers.
Rootz Into Food Growing
“Ultimately, we’re drawn into growing and food growing because I guess we want to be connected to nature, to the land… A lot of us came at it for its well-being benefits yet, you end up getting stuck in a loop that is so far from well-being, it’s just ridiculous.”
- Selene, RIFG research participant
Interviewees of the Rootz into Food Growing research told us of either their relative privilege in being able to afford to do underpaid/unpaid labour in horticulture, or having to patch together an income from other work. BPOC growers are operating in a context (Britain) where we are are less likely to have access to green spaces and nature than our white counterparts. Furthermore, horticulture, agriculture, environment are three of the least ethnically diverse sectors, employing over 90% of white, British workers.
Our research helped illuminate why financing initiatives for growers is necessary. Interviewees experienced many challenges including, land scarcity, interpersonal conflicts and gatekeeping (in allotments, farmers markets, growing & funding opportunities). In terms of their finances, growers had several part-time jobs at once and had to supplement their income through other, non-food growing, part-time or full-time work. Others had volunteered, with varying experiences; unpaid growing opportunities had lots of intrinsic value, but ultimately was unsustainable for most growers to not get paid. Interviewees expressed the importance of ending a reliance on volunteers, bringing in proper pay for growers and ending the “high churn rate” in London’s food growing scene.
Alongside these issues, BPOC growers exist in a context of wage disparities between ethnic groups, plus an often-negative perception of agricultural employment among many migrant groups because of associations with insecurity, hard manual labour and economic exploitation. It is essential that routes to sustain livelihoods from growing food and running enterprises are established, as well as the creation of outlets and markets for produce. Most immediately necessary is ensuring the provision of substantial, fair remuneration and support for BPOC growers.
— Image by Sandra (GoGrowWithLove)
Grant Administration
“Funders shouldn’t wait for perfect. Trust & fund the communities doing the work”
- Steph Brobbey, Founder of The Good Ancestor Movement
We had a simple application process which asked for details about the individual or organisation, why you wanted to grow, how this grant would support you and what tier you were applying for. The tiers were:
Getting Into Growing Tier (Beginners - up to £125)
Caring For My Garden Tier (Hobbyists - up to £300)
I’m Gonna Be A Grower Tier (New Entrants/Trainees - up to £800)
Fertilise The Movement Tier (Growing Projects - up to £1000)
However, as the application process was online only, it was still difficult for some people to access. This is something we wished we could have made easier.
Our panellists had to consider financial privilege, different intersections of marginalisation such as, migrant status, sexuality and disability. Their roles were to allocate a set number of grants for each tier. Despite this, they struggled to make final decisions. Almost every applicant was deserving of financial support. The difficulties in decision-making meant that we had to extend our deliberation period. Due to limited capacity, the administrative process took several months.
The Growers Grants working group were also limited in capacity as only one or two of us were able to dedicate time to administrative tasks. We were supported by freelancers from our network at times like these. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who supported us in this process. It made it even clearer to us that LION does not have the capacity to be a grant-giving body. We were only able to distribute grants at the end of November and the beginning of December. We regret that it took so long to get the money to grantees. This is why we are calling out grant-giving organisations and institutions to support individuals and small organisations.
— Print by Rosanna Morris
What Next?
As a land justice organisation, LION’s focus is beyond financial. If organisations who are gifted land are committed to racial equity, they should pass land on. Preferable to have land use without a “owner”, which avoids reinforcing existing societal power dynamics. If an individual or organisation has access to resources, whether they are money, land, courses, skills, share these freely or on a sliding scale to BPOC. Some organisations have met this call by providing discounted or free resources for our Resource Pack, which you can access here. However, many were not able to offer anything other than asking for us to share their grant-giving schemes to our networks. This was especially frustrating if the application process meant that if you were an unincorporated or unconstituted group you could not apply - let alone if you were an individual. This is not good enough. Especially as there is a shortage of ways into horticulture or food growing.
We ask funders and large organisations - what will you do? We hope this article demonstrates the urgent need to find sustainable, long-term ways of supporting BPOC growers and our communities. That there is a role for you in addressing imbalances in ways that smaller organisations cannot. The impact and benefits of this would be immense - beyond any Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity commitments made by individual organisations. This sort of commitment can lead to achieving food justice, building closer relationships with marginalised communities and sharing growing knowledge from all around the world.
Another follow-on of this project is the creation of a London-based BPOC Growers Network. Collaborating with Rootz Into Food Growing, we are establishing a network to connect growers of colour so that we can forge relationships and address the barriers that we face.
Thank You
We want to thank all the people and organisations who made this possible. Jess and Sui, Necessity, BE the Earth Foundation, Thirty Percy, Amarha and the Black Land and Spatial Justice Fund. Our panellists - Laurèl Hadleigh, Jyoti Fernandes, Andre Reid, Dr Hannah Jones. Our freelancers - Kate Bernstock and Heba Hayek. Decolonising Economics for their guidance, big up Noni and Guppi. Mark Walton who happily paid out each grant. Sam and Marcus who managed the project and planned each step. The entire LION collective for all their support. We also want to thank Jo Kamal who created the resource pack and has worked with Pauline Shakespeare and Sam Siva to create the London BPOC Network. And most of all we want to thank every single applicant for our Growers Grants.
If you would like to know more about the London BPOC Growers Network please email us at hello@landinournames.community
LION relies on donations and grants, please support our work by donating here.