How to Join

Members of the Community Food Growers’ Network are able to share and exchange on everything from the latest opportunities in urban food growing, to campaigns, and resources for growing and accessing land for community use. We hold regular gatherings at different  member projects, sharing skills and experiences to build the food sovereignty and community food movement in London.

The Community Food Growers’ Network is currently free to join, with the option of making a donation if you are part of a project that is able to contribute in this way. We believe that being part of a movement for food justice should be accessible to all projects, and are developing a membership structure which distributes resources equitably and supports people to get involved with organising in different ways. If your organisation would like to make a donation to help support CFGN’s running costs (coordinator time, working group time, venue hire, accessibility/childcare, training for members, IT support, etc) you can do this through our Just Giving Page.

We offer four types of membership – active individual member, associate individual member, active member organisation, and associate member organisation. 

Active members are involved with decision making, the shaping of the network and what we offer. This includes core and working group members, caretakers and coordinators. You can become an active member either as an individual, or as a representative of an organisation that wants to join.

Associate members are not involved in the running of CFGN and are not a part of any working groups. They attend gatherings and CFGN events as and when they can. Associate members commit to feeding into processes pertaining to CFGN’s development, offer opinion or contribute to decision making.

To become a member of CFGN first read the Manifesto. If you/ your project is aligned with this vision and willing to work towards it, follow the decision tree below and fill out the new membership form.

CFGN membership poster final

Why Join?

As a member of CFGN you get to be part of an exciting network of groups and individuals doing amazing things across London and the South East.  As a member of CFGN, you get access to the support and training that we produce. We try as much as possible to ensure that support and training is free of charge for members. In the past, this has included workshops, one-on-one consultancy sessions, and subsidies for external trainings. We also bring together information and resources from across our membership (such as price lists, lease documents, template emails for contacting your Council, etc) and make it accessible to CFGN members. Members collaborate on projects and funding applications, and share tips, job opportunities and resources on the mailing list. We can also publicise the events and news of our members through our social media. In the past we produced a regular newspaper called The Plot, and are up for doing this again if any core members are keen to make it happen.

When we have capacity, CFGN responds to consultations of borough-wide Local Plans, as well as city wide policy and strategy documents. All of our submissions are written with the experiences and opinions of our members front and centre, so being part of the Network creates opportunities to feed into wider discussions of policy.

Last but not least, you get a chance to shape the landscape of food politics in London. CFGN is made up of passionate and inspiring people who are nurturing social change through growing, cooking and eating food. Together we can achieve so much more than we can on our own.

If you have queries about the network and membership? Get in touch.

2018 Membership intro pack, updated version coming soon