CULTIVATEAnNNUAL ReEPORT

2012-13

NOTICE is given that the first Annual General Meeting of members will be held at 6.30pm on Tuesday 11th June 2013 at the Old Library, University Church of St Mary, Radcliffe Square, Oxford, OX1 4BJ for the following purposes:

Agenda

1. Annual Review, including receiving Directors’ reports2. Receiving and adopting finances3. Election / re-election of Board of Directors4. Questions & Answers

Non-executive Directors: Tom Curtis (Chair), Sarah Flood

Executive Directors: Dan Betterton, Doireann Lalor, Emma Burnett, Julian Cottee, Joe Hasell

Cultivate is a Community Benefit Society registered in England, no. 31487R14 Southdale Road, Oxford, OX2 7SDwww.cultivateoxford.org

FORMAL NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

TO BE HELD ON TUESDAY 11 JUNE 2013

AIMS

1. Make good local food fairly-priced, convenient and accessible for more people

2. Support the growth of ecologically-friendly and sustainable farming

3. Bring people together to push local food forward in practical ways

4. Create training and education opportunities for a new generation of growers

5. Do business in new ways that benefit and strengthen our community

REVIEW: AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 2012-13

Strategic objectives 2012-13:

Our objectives in January 2012: What we achieved:Establish 5 acres of vegetable production at the Earth Trust Cultivate is converting 10 acres of former arable land into mixed production,

including orchard and soft fruits (see Section 1)Work with 4 local organic vegetable producers from the Thames Organic Growers network

We have sold produce from 6 fellow members of the Thames Organic Growers network and 18 other local growers and artisans

Run mobile markets from the VegVan in 6 neighbourhoods and 2 businesses For 6 months we ran the VegVan at 18 locations. Under a revised schedule (see Section 2) the VegVan visits 4 locations and we run 2 market stalls

Sell fresh, local, seasonal fruit and vegetables to 250 customers per week We serve approximately 250 customers each week

Supply vegetables to 3 restaurants and colleges in Oxford During the summer season 2012 Cultivate supplied over 9 restaurants, cafes and delis

Raise £55,000 of initial capital through a time-bound community share offer Cultivate’s community share offer raised over £80,000 (see Section 5)

Recruit 350 members Cultivate has 355 members

Employ 4 people on a part-time basis Cultivate currently employs 4 people part-time and others on a seasonal and occasional basis

Pilot land-based training apprenticeships and internships We ran an internship programme for 3 students and a month-long Field to Fork training programme for 3 young people (see Section 4)

Engage members and non-members through farm events, volunteering and media

We have held 16 farm events, 8 member forums and numerous other events (see Section 3) and have a high profile in social and traditional media

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There are many reasons to reinvent the food system. You might feel uneasy about whether the food you’re eating is really what you think it is. You might think it’s excessive that we need £70 million worth of fossil fuels to produce Oxford’s food each year. Or you might think it’s odd that less than half of one percent of what we eat comes from close-by.

But you might also want to reinvent the food system simply for the creative, tasty joy of it. Because good food, from places you know, grown by people you know, grown by you and for you, tastes good, feels good and seems right. I think it’s for a lot of those reasons - and many more, that the Cultivate was formed a year ago to grow delicious food and bring it to neighbourhoods in and around Oxford.

And that’s what we’ve done. Together, we set up a business – a unique kind of business that’s owned by the community it serves. We raised over £80,000 of share capital; established a market garden on the side of the Wittenham Clumps; kitted out a

VegVan; linked up with other local growers; grew our membership; grew our veg, and started bringing good food into our communities.

And it works, mostly! We’ve built, and we’ve learned, we’ve taken stock, and we’ve adjusted. We’ve made plans to build on what we’ve done and what we’ve learned. That’s what you’ll find in this document; our first Annual Report. You’ll have seen some of the adjustments in the changes to the VegVan schedule over recent months – fewer, longer, more visible stops; which sell more veg to more people, and which are more profitable to run. We’ve planned more adjustments, too, and we’re excited to tell you about them. And to ask you what you think, and to invite you to take part. And that last bit – enabling people to play an active role - is a big part of what we plan to do better and make more of in the future.

So what does this amount to? Are we reinventing the food system? Yes, with small – but very resonant – steps, we are. And I think, I hope, that people are feeling the joy of it. And we’re not alone; there are communities like ours, but different, in Exeter, Manchester, London, Bristol, Todmordon... In fact, there are hundreds of towns, and cities and communities building a movement for people-powered food across the country. And this movement doesn’t only have scope to bring about change in clear-cut ways, through replicating and spreading tested models. It’s also more subtle than that: people take note of what we’re doing and how we’re doing it; companies watch; potential new businesses and new communities think – locally grown food, ‘local accountability’, locally grown investment, a good deep-rooted community of owners/investors/customers… it’s a pretty good way to go on, and on.

Tom Curtis | Chair of Cultivateʼs Board of Directors27 May 2013

INTRODUCTION: CULTIVATING CHANGE IN THE FOOD SYSTEM

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After securing tenancy of 5 acres of land at the Earth Trust in Little Wittenham in autumn 2011, Cultivate

established a new market garden on former arable land. This transformation involved putting in place

significant infrastructure and embarking on a long process of improving the fertility of the

conventionally-farmed soil. Despite this challenge, and some of the worst growing conditions in recent

memory, the first year of growing yielded an impressive, high-quality crop. More recently, we took on an

additional 5 acres, adding perennial crops and more fertility-building phases within the annual rotation,

and we have started to build up skills and knowledge that put us on track for an excellent harvest in the

years to come.

Achievements

Perhaps the main achievement to report is the roughly £15,000 worth of produce that we grew and took to market over the course of the year ending December 2012. We grew a good range of produce, and throughout the year we had some real winners. In particular, the summer polytunnel crops did very well; we had a long and prolific season of tomatoes, aubergines and peppers. The leeks managed to survive a brush with leek moth to produce a lovely stand from September all the way through May. Mixed salad, rainbow chard, beetroot, French beans, purple sprouting broccoli, even Florence fennel, all did well for us at different times of the year. Furthermore, the feedback we have received about our produce, from people shopping on the van and from chefs we have sold to, has been very encouraging indeed. In terms of quality, it seems we’re on the right track.

Most of the key infrastructure on the farm is now in place: four polytunnels, irrigation, fencing, plant-raising facilities, tools and equipment. This should now leave us more time to just take care of the plants – something that we’re all glad of. In addition to the nuts and bolts, we’re also getting systems in place: ways of planting, watering, harvesting, and moving things and people about. This is something we still have a long way to go on, but we’ve learned huge amounts from the year that has past. Thus, both in terms of infrastructure and organisation, we’ve developed from a patch of grass to a functioning market garden in 12 months – a huge achievement.

In addition to our annual rotation, we also now have a reasonable quantity of perennial crops which were planted earlier this year: apples, pears and plums, which we’ll be harvesting in three to four years; as well as some soft fruit, much of which will be producing this year.

It should be noted that none of the above would have happened without the support of members and volunteers at the farm (more on this in Section 3).

1. A NEW MARKET GARDEN FOR OXFORD

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Challenges

The weather: wet and dull. Overall in the UK we saw the wettest summer since 1912, and the wettest June on record. Indeed, anecdotally, there seems to be a consensus amongst local growers that it was one of the worst seasons in living memory. A great year to start! One major consequence of the continual rain, and perhaps the greatest perpetrator of the year, was the ever-present army of slugs – by far the most despised pest at the Cultivate farm. We also hosted an exciting mix of other pests and diseases: carrot root fly, bean seed fly, pea and bean weevil, leek moth, pigeons, mice and an unusual stem disease on the peppers, to mention but a few.

The wet weather hampered us in a variety of other ways. Our heavy-ish clumpy soil (compared variously to the Somme, to the last day at Glastonbury, and to a chocolate pudding) is hard work when wet. Some tasks are made difficult in these conditions, some are made impossible. For weeks at a time we were unable to get out in the field with our walking tractor to prepare for planting; thus we watched the queue of plants waiting to go out get steadily longer. Hoeing in wet weather is like trying to spread cold butter on fluffy bread with a sharp knife – a futile act of desperation, which one ought to know better than to attempt.

Overall, perhaps the biggest challenge came from how late in the season we really got going. It was late April before we had a significant amount of time to spend at the farm. The joy of seeing the Community Share Offer surpass all expectations when it closed at the end of March was immense, but this was rapidly replaced by the realisation of how much we had to catch up on. This month-and-a-half handicap, coupled with the various infrastructure projects that had to be completed, and the wet-weather burden, meant that, throughout the whole year, we were playing catch-up. In mid-summer this was just about tolerable given the abundance of things growing and being harvested. However, as the days got shorter and the season came to a close, it became more apparent. We ran out of time on some later sowings and plantings and this, compounded by some patchy germination earlier and the various pest damage already noted, resulted in a real dip in production over winter and spring.

A tough year, certainly; a great year nonetheless. The farm is up and running and in many ways (not least the weather!) we are streets ahead of where we were this time last year. We’re now tantalisingly close to a “hungry gap” harvest - peas, bunched carrots, little gems and beetroot -

Farm Step at the Earth Trust

Cultivate’s 10 acres of land is based at the Earth Trust in Little Wittenham, 10 miles south of Oxford, as part of the Farm Step project. Farm Step encourages new farming enterprises in Oxfordshire by providing access to land and a supportive community of like-minded businesses.

Our neighbours include Camila and Roly’s sheep, the Little Salad Company, Close to the Veg and Brightwell Bees, who produce the honey for the VegVan. Farm Step is recruiting new enterprises and aims over time to add more shared facilities for tenants, so if you are considering starting a rural enterprise, find out more at www.earthtrust.org.uk.

and are so far on track with all the plantings and sowings for this year, aiming to roughly double production.

Priorities for this year

• Increasing production, particularly throughout winter and spring – via a re-worked crop rotation, increased protected cropping space and improved plant-raising systems

• Consolidation and organisation – becoming quicker and slicker in a range of processes, with better record-keeping for analysis

• Soil fertility – improving our management of green manures, extending the rotation to include more fertility-building phases and beginning production of woodchip-based compost

• Irrigation – working with the Earth Trust to improve water pressure and implement better irrigation systems

• Preparation towards going into organic conversion, from Spring 2014

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One of Cultivate’s aims is to find new ways of getting local food to

more people. The great experiment of our first year has been the

creation and testing of the VegVan mobile greengrocery. From its

humble beginnings as an electrician’s white van, we are proud that the

VegVan has now become a notable and well-used feature of Oxford’s

landscape. The year has seen changes to the timetable as we have

learned how customers are using the shop. We also serve two farmers’

markets and have established relationships with some of Oxford’s best

restaurants.

Achievements

The arrival of the VegVan in such dapper style is due in no small part to the skills of the carpenters Peter and Martin, ‘the Cheerful Chippies’ who worked on the interior transformation over the course of three days in their workshop, using recycled wood from fellow social enterprise Oxford Wood Recycling. The exterior artwork was designed and executed by graffiti artist Kleiner Shames, a rising star on the Oxford scene. Look carefully and you’ll see iconic features of Cultivate’s daily landscape worked into the design, including the Wittenham Clumps and Didcot power station. Oxfordshire Visual Arts Development Agency (OVADA) kindly provided use of their warehouse space for the painting. Matched funding for the VegVan’s development came from the Southern Oxfordshire LEADER programme, with money from the EU and central government.

2. NEW ROUTES TO MARKET FORLOCAL FOOD

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Launching the service in early July 2012 we were helped by passionate community advocates all over Oxford and further afield to set up a VegVan stop in their areas, reaching a total of 18 stops a week at the highest point. As a result we engaged with huge numbers of people from Didcot to Kidlington, from Chalgrove to Appleford, in addition to our Oxford-based stops. Spread over just three days and involving some long driving distances, this resulted in a frenzied schedule for the VegVan operatives, some early mornings and very late nights! Nonetheless, systems and expertise in storing and selling fruit and vegetables were developed over the period, working with minimal space and refrigeration capacity. We are grateful to the Oxford Food Bank, with whom we developed a partnership to share their warehouse premises in West Oxford until the redevelopment of the building at the end of 2012.

From January 2013 we experimented with a new VegVan schedule, as a response to a combination of factors including the lower seasonal availability of produce, the stress caused by the rather rapid-fire initial timetable, and customer feedback. Customers and potential customers reported that they found the short time-slots difficult to work into their weekly routine. Particularly in business parks, rural and suburban locations, this resulted in customer numbers quickly falling off below a viable minimum, once driving time to and from the location was taken into account. The new timetable was designed to increase the average length of stops from around half an hour to two or more hours each, meaning customers would have more flexibility in when to shop. This has proven to be a successful strategy, and it is likely we will maintain this format going forward. The change in schedule was complemented by innovations in our stock-management and ordering systems, which have also added to the increased efficiency of the enterprise.

Overall in its first year the VegVan will have plied its rounds every single week with the exception of a short break around the New Year, completing a total of around 550 stops. Thanks to all of our customers who braved even the coldest, darkest, windiest and rainiest days. We hope reading this report will help remind you why you bothered and of the great contribution your individual actions have made to Cultivate’s continued success!

In addition to the VegVan, Cultivate has supported the arrival of two new markets in the city, both as a way of diversifying and growing our income stream and as a way of introducing local food to more people. The South Oxford Farmers’ and Community Market, more snappily known as SOFACOMA (the state not to be in on Sunday mornings if you want to get to the market on time), has been set up as a grassroots organisation by community members who are part of OxGrow

The VegVan Hits the Headlines!

Even the national press have been keen to get on board the VegVan, which has inspired coverage in The Grocer, the trade magazine for the FMCG sector (that’s fast-moving consumer goods to you!) and the Guardian, amongst other publications. BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today programme also came to do a piece at the St Barnabas stop, revealing that a surprisingly large number of Cultivate members are up at 5.45am (when Farming Today is broadcast). You can read and listen to it all at www.cultivateoxford.org/newsblog/press-and-publicity.

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edible garden and the Low Carbon South Oxford Food Group. In an area where there are few shops selling fresh food, let alone provision for local food, the market has been a great success and a testament to heroic local activism. More recently Cultivate has started to serve at the new Summertown Sunday Market. This was a more difficult decision to make since it is a privately-run rather than community-led market and clashes with the existing Wolvercote Farmers’ Market; however, on balance we felt that local food in Oxford was best served by taking this opportunity to bring produce from the city’s farms right into the heart of a busy shopping street, competing alongside the big supermarkets.

Finally, over the course of the first growing season we developed a small wholesale arm to Cultivateʼs operations, providing local produce to shops, delis and some of the city’s best restaurants. We have been inspired by the work of the Manchester Veg People in developing a local wholesale supply network for caterers in Manchester, but significant investment and logistics work would have to occur for this to happen in Oxford. So for now at least, it is likely that wholesale will remain a relatively small portion of Cultivate’s work, and will be restricted to our own produce during the high season when there is surplus from the farm.

On the retail side, we are happy to have created a new outlet for Oxfordshire’s producers and artisans. During the high season, from July-December, almost 100% of the produce stocked on the VegVan was produced within 25 miles of Oxford, with the exception of mushrooms, for which we have been unable to find a local organic producer. In the low season a higher proportion of produce has been sourced from the UK and, when necessary, from mainland Europe, via organic wholesalers, reaching as high as 50%. In future years it is hoped this figure will be lower due to better weather conditions and increased capacity on our own farm. However, the good relationship we have forged with our wholesale suppliers Choice Organics should guarantee a varied and stable supply of produce even when localised conditions mean there is little available

within Oxfordshire. Locally, we are now well embedded within the Thames Organic Growers network and have developed strong links with local farmers and producers that will provide an excellent basis for ongoing work to get more local food into the city. In our first year we will have worked with more than 24 small-scale producers, channelling a total of £22,000 back into the local economy, a figure we will be aiming to increase substantially in future years.

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Challenges

Inevitably, much is learned during the first year of any new enterprise, and we have seen significant departures from our original ambitions and business plan. In order to shape an enterprise that works in real life and not just on paper, we are having to learn to be quick-moving and adaptable, but there have been some costs to the changes we have made to the VegVan, most notably a reduction in the number of communities we have been able to serve. Although consolidation of stops in the same geographical area accounts for some of the change, coming down from 18 to 4 weekly VegVan stops is a huge leap! In retrospect it now seems like madness ever to have attempted to cover so many sites over three days, but this did not make it any less wrenching to leave behind the friends we made at stops we could not continue to serve. We had some sad days at the end of December making our last rounds of Kidlington, Marston and Didcot. Our aspirations to serve lower-income areas and food deserts have also suffered from the change in timetable. However, we hope this is a temporary blip rather than an overall change of strategy - perhaps the VegVan is not the best way of serving all communities with local food, in which case we will work on finding alternative routes over the coming years.

In one case, bureaucracy has also proved a barrier to continued VegVan service. Working with the Abingdon Carbon Cutters, we had identified Abingdon as one of the core communities for the VegVan under the new timetable. Although the Carbon Cutters assisted us in negotiating with the local council, upon investigation it was found that as a result of inflexible policy there is no way for the VegVan to trade legally in the town. Cultivate has made representations to the relevant officials at Abingdon Town Council and the Vale of White Horse District Council, but there is no hope of change to policy until review by the District Council next year.

Overall the VegVan has proven to be a more limited route to market than we had originally hoped, for the following reasons:

• Finite locations with sufficient footfall - a large pool of potential customers at each stop is necessary to maintain viable trading over time. There are only so many locations within Oxford that meet these criteria.

• Limited operational days per week - people generally buy very little in the early part of the week, and most local farms harvest mid-week (Tuesday or Wednesday). This means that our days of operation are currently limited to Thursday-Sunday.

In Numbers: working for the local food economy

In Cultivateʼs first 12 months of trading we will have:

★ Served 10,000 customers

★ Put £22,000 back into the local

food economy

★ Run 550 markets and VegVan stops

★ Worked with 24 local producers

including:

• Westmill Organics• Sandy Lane Farm

• North Aston Organics• Veg in Clover

• Tolhurst Organics• Little Salad Co.

• Springhill Farm and Gardens• Medley Manor Farm

• Green Broom Co-op• Rectory Farm

• Waterperry Gardens• Q Gardens

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• Shopping habits and low value products mean small average spend - people are used to buying little and often, rather than doing a weekly shop, so although average spend has increased, it remains between £6-£8. By contrast, households who do their weekly shop on the VegVan regularly spend between £15-£30, but this is rare.

• Small shelf area means small added-value product range - traditional shops carry a wide range of stock, which attracts customers and boosts revenue, even if it sells slowly. The small storage and shelf capacity of the VegVan means that we cannot add much additional stock of this kind, limiting average spend.

• People find it hard to work the VegVan into their routine - with the rise of internet and 24-hour shopping, people now tend to shop at the time that suits them, even if that is 10pm at night or 4am in the morning! Even people who love what we do often find it difficult to fit the VegVan into their lives on a regular basis.

The combined effect of these factors has been that the VegVan has under-performed financially compared to original projections, though as discussed fully in Section 5, the Board have taken action to reduce the impact of financial underperformance of the VegVan in order to secure the sustainability of Cultivate as a whole. Under new projections based on our learning, it is unlikely that the VegVan will provide sufficient sales to be the solid financial core for Cultivate that we had originally hoped, nor constitute as much of a route to market for other local producers as we aspire to be able to create. In the short-term, markets and wholesale have been excellent additional routes to market that have gone some way to compensating for the shortfall in VegVan sales. However, these are both limited: markets by their clustering at weekends which limits the number that can be attended without putting undue burden on refrigerated storage, harvesting, vehicles and human resource, as well as potential competition with other local producers for market pitches; while wholesale is limited by the economic problem of small margins when selling at wholesale rather than retail prices. Ultimately we have identified the need to develop further retail routes to market to ensure Cultivate’s financial sustainability in the long term, with an online and delivery model being the best contender at this stage.

Several key constraints will have to be overcome before embarking on any expansion of current routes to market or the development of new ones. These issues were not identified in the original business plan so no financial resources are currently available - other funding will have to be found. The first is access to adequate refrigerated storage. We had originally envisaged harvesting almost direct from the field to point of sale, however the large number of suppliers, and logistical issues surrounding harvest days

Cultivate wholesale

Cultivate has provided wholesale veg to Oxford restaurants, cafes and delis including:

★ Turl Street Kitchen★ St Aldates Tavern★ Geeʼs★ The Anchor★ WOCA Cafe★ Jacobs and Field★ The Field Kitchen★ Organic Deli★ The Peopleʼs Supermarket

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Spring Hill Farms and Gardens

Spring Hill Farms and Gardens, based at Springhill Prison, 22 miles from Oxford, is focused on education, training, rehabilitation and community engagement.

“It’s been brilliant working with Cultivate to be able to make our fresh produce available to communities across Oxfordshire via the VegVan service.”

Alison Nicholson, Project Supervisor

have made storage increasingly necessary. Our current flotilla of domestic fridges and several small commercial fridges is inadequate to allow us to store any more produce than current throughput - we are already overflowing our capacity in the warmer summer weather when delicate berries and salad leaves put great strain on storage space. The second barrier is access to permanent warehouse space within or near the Oxford ring road. Again, our original vision had seen the VegVan based on the farm; however, the reality of operating a local food hub necessitates a more central location with water, power and ideally roller-shutter access. This would be an expensive addition to monthly costs. We have been very fortunate to secure large, well-appointed and most importantly free warehouse premises in the old Habitat building off the Botley Road recently through the support of the charity Healthy Planet, however, this site will soon be re-developed, and ultimately permanent premises are a pre-requisite for growth and a sustainable enterprise.

Priorities for this year

• Continuing to form close relationships and working together with local producers

• Finding solutions to warehouse and refrigeration needs

• Creating and formalising the role of VegVan and Markets Manager• Ongoing recruitment and training of a pool of VegVan and market staff

• Adding additional markets or VegVan stops as capacity allows

• Developing a business plan for additional routes to market

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The VegVan at the Rusty Bicycle, as painted by Imogen Foxell

Cultivate is a community-owned organisation. It exists to improve the food system in Oxfordshire

according to the priorities of its members. In our first year those priorities were defined in the share offer

proposals that 246 people invested in back in January 2012. Since then Cultivate’s membership has grown by

over 100 workshare and subscription members and during the coming year we aim to engage our membership

afresh to help define and deliver cultivate’s goals into the future. But community engagement goes further

than our membership, and over the past year we have created a multitude of volunteering opportunities and

held a variety of different kinds of events to bring people together around the aim of better food for

Oxfordshire.

Membership

Cultivate’s launch was a direct result of the actions of 246 founding members from Oxford and surrounding areas (and a few from much further afield) who invested a total of over £80,000 to get the organisation off the ground. After the close of the share offer period Cultivate was opened up to new members through workshare or subscription. Subscription members support Cultivate’s work by making a financial contribution, currently £2/month or £24/year. Workshare members volunteer their time, at least half a day a month. Cultivate now has a total of 355 members and we’re steadily growing.

One of the challenges for the coming year is how we can better harness and channel the enthusiasm and skills of Cultivateʼs membership base to realise the potential for real people-powered food! While many of our members are happy simply to be supporting the co-operative financially, there is a clear desire from some members for more hands-on involvement, which we have not yet been in a position to make use of fully. For example, only about half of our 35 workshare volunteers, who have all stated a desire to make a regular volunteering commitment to Cultivate, have completed their allocation of volunteer hours. If we could design better structures to respond to our workshare members’ aspirations, Cultivate would have half a day of voluntary labour available every single day of every month, which could have enormous impact!

We have had considerable success using online communications such as newsletters and interactive polls to engage our membership in our developments and decision-making processes, and we have excellent offline relationships with many of our members. But we have found that more formal settings for involvement, such as meetings and Member Forums, have been less well attended.

3. COMMUNITY

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Volunteering

Cultivate is a people-powered community organisation. In practice this means that our modus operandi places considerable importance on volunteering, both as a means to the end of achieving our goals, and as an end in itself, because through volunteering we actively create community capacity.

Volunteers form the backbone of Cultivate. At the top end of the scale of involvement Cultivate’s Board of Directors is entirely voluntary, committing to one board meeting a month and often many hours of work in between meetings. Some of Cultivate’s founding directors also currently work either full- or part-time for the organisation in a voluntary capacity.

We have had several long-term volunteers working with us on the land and at markets on a regular basis, in some cases as much as several times a week. These tend to be people at a transition stage of their lives, especially young people about to launch into careers, or career-changers looking for new experiences. It has been interesting and gratifying to have Cultivate act as a springboard, launching people toward new and exciting things. Pensioners have also found in Cultivate an opportunity to devote their time, skills and experience to a useful cause. We would like here to give particular acknowledgement to Cultivate’s regular volunteers, who have made a lasting contribution to Cultivate and have become a real part of the core team.

No less valuable to Cultivate is our much larger army of occasional volunteers who do shifts on the VegVan or stints mucking in at the land. Volunteers are essential at some of the busier VegVan and market stops, where there is a constant flurry of activity just keeping the shelves stocked. The frenzied schedule often means there is little time to induct new volunteers into this kind of work, which can lead to them being somewhat thrown in at the deep end! This has not stopped several volunteers from transitioning into part-time work for Cultivate, however.

Monthly land volunteer days, of which we have held 16 since the establishment of the farm, have been absolutely invaluable in getting some of the larger farm tasks accomplished, most notably putting up our four polytunnels for protected cropping, and planting the orchard, and we won’t forget the fragrant day on which we turned over the compost heaps...

In our first year we have had over 100 volunteers, the majority on the land, but up to a quarter on the retail side. Others have contributed their time and skills on specific projects, including reflection and strategy sessions, marketing advice, technology development, agroforestry consultancy,

Alan Tong

dedicated land volunteer

“I have been a volunteer at Cultivate since July 2012 and usually go to the lovely Little Wittenham site two mornings a week and to the monthly open day on a Saturday.

I am particularly interested that the fruit and vegetables are grown organically and that most waste material is composted and re-used on the land. 

As a pensioner it is nice to have something to look forward to and working with such friendly and enthusiastic young people who trust me to do a variety of jobs is very satisfying and rewarding.”

photography, wooden stile construction, and even research into chicken-keeping and ostrich farming!

Seasonality inevitably has an impact on our volunteers, just as it does on our crops. In the winter there was almost no need for volunteers on the land during the week, only the bravest came out for midwinter Saturday land days, and manning the VegVan required serious thermal layers! But our volunteers have proven themselves up to all tasks and weathers, and for that Cultivate is eternally grateful and proud. Oxford is a transitory city, and we can expect to gain and lose volunteers constantly, but this high turnover of volunteers brings with it constant renewal and freshness.

Events

As part of Cultivate’s wider community role we have put on events to raise awareness about our work and the wider issues surrounding sustainable food and agriculture for Oxford. These have varied hugely in audience and content over the last 18 months, starting with a publicity blitz at the launch of our share offer that saw us give presentations at Oxford and Brookes Universities, the Women’s Institute, grassroots sustainability groups, Rotary Clubs and business networking lunches, to name but a few venues. Since then, highlights include a presentation to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Agroecology in Westminster, a podcast on the future of British food for the Open University, numerous talks to groups of students on climate change and social enterprise, and a talk at the Oxford University Environment and Development Forum.

Cultivate was one of the organising partners for the 2013 Oxford Real Farming Conference, with 350 attendees, more than 60 speakers and 67 hours of presentations. We have also enjoyed organising a number of more informal events including local food dinners and parties, which are not only great fun but strategically important for community capacity building! We are particularly happy that Cultivate has been able to support the development of one member-led initiative, the Foodosophy Reading Group, which has met on 10 occasions to discuss books, articles and films related to food, farming, economics and philosophy. Cultivate hosts a web-page for the group and provided advertising in our email newsletter, but the group is entirely independently organised by members, a model that we would like to see replicated during the coming year for other activities. We encourage members to get in touch with ideas and let us know how Cultivate might be able to help.

Freya Stanley-Price

Media and Marketing Officer,

Centre for Alternative

Technology, née Cultivate

volunteer

“My time volunteering with Cultivate was brief - I had just graduated from  university  and moved to Oxford, a place I didn't know very well. Working with Cultivate helped me to learn my way around the city and introduced me to some lovely people. Whether it was the early morning shift on a Thursday or a volunteering day out on the land, I gained valuable experience whilst working with fantastically dedicated people. Volunteering with such an interesting organisation helped me get my current job with the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales. I was sad to leave Cultivate behind, but I love hearing how they have gone from strength to strength, and I know I will keep in touch with them in the future.”

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Godden-Melendez Family

Supporters, volunteers and keen eaters

Bella: I like Cultivate veg, and I especially love their salad bags! It was fun delivering leaflets, we’d do it again.

Jasmine: I like going to Cultivate VegVan and talking to Doireann.

Paul and Rina: We love what Cultivate is doing, preparing the ground for a new generation to grow food for life and food for thought.

Michael Buick

Foodosopher and polytunnel

constructor

"I'm a member, volunteer, customer and friend of Cultivate. It's been one of the most exciting th ings happen ing i n Ox fo rd , and a real  catalyst  for good thoughts and good actions around food and community.

Particularly encouraging for me is the cross-over between  intellectually exploring the issues and practically addressing them, through the grit of digging the earth and selling veg from a van, of running a co-op and starting a business. 

A year ago I started a Food & Philosophy (Foodosophy!) reading group to make sure I got my monthly helping of decent reading and intelligent discussion - selfish really! It has evolved to be hosted by Cultivate, with well attended film screenings and notes from the discussions posted on the Cultivate blog. We all enjoy it, and our minds are better nourished for the tough debates that will determine so much in the coming years. What we need in this challenging century is reflection+action and Cultivate have both. The ideas that they are sowing in Oxford and the UK are as important as the seeds they're planting in Little Wittenham."

Priorities for this year

• Restructuring and re-imagining our Member Forums to encourage greater involvement• Developing and delivering better volunteer inductions and ongoing training and development for regular volunteers

• Redesigning the Workshare Membership programme

• Forming “Teams” to enable members and volunteers to participate more actively in the day-to-day management of Cultivate

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Beaudry Kock

Technology guru

Beaudry and his collaborators at Better World Coding (www.betterworldcoding.org) worked with Cultivate to develop Cultivate for iPhone (you can download it here: www.bit.ly/147zshC), an iOS app which helps Cultivate customers find VegVan locations, communicate with the Cultivate team, and keep up to date on VegVan news. BWC also worked to set up the automated VegText SMS system (check it out here: www.bit.ly/10u9Qer) which reminds customers when the VegVan is arriving at a stop. Beaudry is committed to using technology in support of great organisations contributing to social and environmental sustainability, which is partly why he wanted to work with Cultivate.

Building capacity in Oxfordshire

Cultivate is part of a web of organisations working together throughout Oxfordshire to create local solutions to global problems. We are proud to be a member of the Community Action Groups network, which has fostered and supported our development since the beginning. We are also a Low Carbon Oxford Pathfinder, one of more than 30 businesses and organisations in the city committed to cutting carbon emissions. Further afield, it has been valuable for us to participate in skillshares and study visits facilitated by the Plunkett Foundation and Making Local Food Work, and we have hosted several return visits for representatives from nascent local food projects.

Monique Mikhail

Events volunteer and champion

Teaming up with Cultivate, Monique hosted a series of documentaries on current food and agriculture issues. Through the viewings, including King Corn, the Greenhorns, and Farm for the Future, she sought to raise awareness about the struggles and triumphs of the new food movement and to increase community participation. The rich discussions following the viewings allowed participants to link philosophical food issues with practical experience, sharing lessons and challenges.

VegVan customers photographed by Fran Monks

www.portraitsthatmatter.com

In Cultivate’s first year we have not concentrated on developing a formal education & Training programme.

Most of the time it has seemed quite ambitious enough just to educate the team in all of the new skills we

have been learning... Nonetheless we have been able to experiment with a variety of different educational

formats during the year, running pilot projects including a summer internship, a month-long youth

programme for young adults at risk of exclusion from mainstream education, employment and training, and

work with schools. We are currently seeking funding to expand educational work with designated staff

and projects from late 2013 onwards.

On the streets: informal education

All of Cultivate’s activities exist in an informal educational space - we’ve tried to bring as many others as possible along on our journey in local food, in person on the farm and in the VegVan, or through the more ethereal communication channels of social media. We like to think of our VegVan as a roving classroom, where shopping is not just an economic transaction but a cultural and educational one too, with staff, volunteers and customers engaging in lively discussions about sourcing dilemmas, and sharing recipe ideas and growing tips. Being on the street is our best opportunity to engage with people who are not the ‘usual suspects’ already tuned into the “why”s and “how”s of local and sustainable food. And indeed, all sorts of people pop their heads into the VegVan, ask awkward questions at markets and take us to task for not stocking kiwis and pineapples. It’s this dialogue that forms the basis for spreading the ideas behind the local food economy deeper into all parts of our local community.

Formal education pilot projects

1. Summer Internships

One of our aims is to tap into the stream of talented young people passing through Oxford every year, and to engage them in the possibilities for putting their skills to use in reforming food and agriculture, one of the biggest challenges facing us in the 21st century. We dipped our toes into these waters this year by recruiting two interns during the summer months, both through the Student Hubs Ethical Internships scheme. Working with people at such a pivotal point in their careers can have real impact. Mara worked

4. EDUCATION AND TRAINING

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Ashley Claire

Field to Fork programme, Summer

2012

“Field to Fork has been so fun, I don’t want it to end! I’ve learned new skills - like how to butcher a rabbit - that’ll really help me when I go back to college. There’s been such a great atmosphere and I’ve got to know loads of new people - it’s been way more fun than sitting at home doing nothing. I want to keep volunteering after the programme’s over, on my days off college. It’s fun!”

mainly on the VegVan, and developed a small vegetable and recipe encyclopaedia to aid in customer knowledge-building. Sam worked mainly on the farm, and has gone on to work part-time on one of the other farms in the Thames Organic Growers network.

2. School Groups

A group of Year 9 Food Technology students from Bicester Community College came to the farm in February for an Enrichment Day. In the morning, practical activities on the farm were interspersed with workshop-style discussions about local and sustainable food, and in the afternoon, veg was harvested and transformed into a hearty soup and eaten with bread and home-made butter. The day was proclaimed a triumph by all, apart from the mud!

3. Field to Fork

Funded by a grant from Oxfordshire County Council, in collaboration with Turl Street Kitchen, we delivered a youth programme for three 16-18 year-olds at risk of exclusion from education, employment and training. All three were venturing into catering training at Oxford and Cherwell Valley College in September. We ran a full-time work-experience programme through the month of August, giving them tasters of work on the farm and in the restaurant, building their confidence and employability, and teaching them about the links between food, people and climate – links which are more often than not missing from traditional catering curricula.

On the cards

This summer we are venturing into more formal adult education, running Vegetable Growing Courses in collaboration with the Earth Trust. But we’re also thinking bigger, and hoping to build on these pilot projects and expand our education and outreach work in Year 2, funding permitting.

Cultivate’s community share offer raised £88,000 in start-up capital,

complemented by grants totaling £18,000. Financial performance

during the first year has been less good than predicted in the initial

business plan, due to a combination of poor growing conditions and

unanticipated limitations to the retail model. The Board has spent the

last months refining the business model, leading to a prediction of a

reduced loss in 2013 and approaching break-even point in 2014.

Funding

Cultivate chose to raise initial capital through Community Shares, a unique form of share capital that can only be issued by co-operatives and community benefit societies registered with the Financial Services Authority. Unlike shares in private companies, where personal  financial gain is the main motive, community  shares are subject to laws that limit financial gain and emphasise social benefit. All investors became members and part-owners of Cultivate. Cultivate had initially aimed for £55,000 of community share funding, but ended the three-month investment window with over £80,000, making Cultivate the most successful community share offer of any food start-up in the country. This was recognised with a mention in the Sunday Times, a visit from the Department for Communities and Local Government and an OCVA Award for ‘Best Fundraising Work’. Additional income has come from the Southern Oxfordshire LEADER programme, which provided £10,700 of matched funding to develop the VegVan, the Community Action Groups network, UnLtd, Co-operatives South-East, TOE2, and most recently an award of funding and mentoring from the Ducky Foundation. In total we’re delighted to say that we were successfully awarded the

5. FINANCIAL OVERVIEW

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£18k of grants that we hoped to raise. Of this figure, we have deferred £9k to cover the cost of van depreciation over the next 4 years.

Trading picture

The first 7 months after incorporation were spent running the share offer and establishing the business infrastructure. Once we had set up the farm and van operations and started harvesting vegetables to sell, we began trading in July 2012. During the period to December 31 2012, VegVan sales were £18,000 lower than expected. When we modelled our trading in the business plan, we expected to attract 10 people to a half hour trading slot when in fact our short stops ranged from 2 to 8 customers. By November we decided that a new model was needed and we used the opportunity of a revised timetable to trial this new approach. Early results in 2013 demonstrate that this new model with fewer, longer stops in more prominent positions is the right approach. See Section 2 for a more detailed analysis. On the wholesale side of the business we have learned that this is only profitable when we have a surplus of our own produce to sell and when the logistics of wholesale distribution fit with current operations. As a result this route to market was not prioritized in 2012 and our revised budget for 2013 also reflects our learning on this.

In terms of cost of sales, our lower than expected trading turnover did mean that our bought-in produce figure was lower than expected, but the saving is masked by a £10,000 figure that represents start-up running costs at the farm (for small tools and equipment). In terms of expenses, our depreciation figure is considerably lower than projected due to 1) fewer equipment purchases and 2) a change in depreciation policy to reflect a longer expected life span of the farm equipment (polytunnels and tractor). At the point when we realised that our income figures were not on target, the staff all decided to make a significant commitment to the business by voluntarily reducing their paid work hours and increasing the number of unpaid hours.

Overall, in hindsight, establishing a new farm operation, a VegVan direct sales route and a wholesale operation to the levels predicted in the business plan was more than we could achieve with the financial and human resources available. This was not helped by having one of the wettest summers on record for our first growing season.

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Looking forward

The Board has spent the last months refining our business model and we feel that we have developed a plan to consolidate the best bits from our experiences in 2012 as well as creating opportunities to develop exciting new activities grounded on a stable financial base. Our model for 2013 shows a much reduced loss, and in 2014 we are very close to break-even point. On the sales side, these models include a continuation of our consolidated VegVan model described above and an expanded Farmers’ Market programme (we are now running weekly stalls at South Oxford and Summertown markets).

As our farm production increases, we are able to model a reduction in the costs of buying in produce. The overall farm budget also reduces as we have fewer one-off start-up purchases to make. Our trading model is now stable so the other costs are flat throughout. Careful planning of how to maximise our member and community involvement will ensure the employment budget is kept at the current level and depot costs are minimised. The model presented below very much represents a consolidated version of current operations. We are confident, however, that there will be opportunities, specifically through grant funding and development of new routes to market, to expand what Cultivate does, but without undermining this core financial base (and indeed hopefully contributing positively towards it).

Cultivate P&L forecast 2013-14 Jan-13* Feb-13* Mar-13* Apr-13* May-13 Jun-13 Jul-13 Aug-13 Sep-13 Oct-13 Nov-13 Dec-13 2013 (Year)TURNOVER                          Veg Van sales 1,848 2,523 2,852 3,152 3,500 3,500 3,500 3,000 3,500 3,500 3,500 3,000 37,375Farmers Market 1,528 2,297 2,040 2,408 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 32,273Wholesale 68 50 270       1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000   5,388Other 204 278 2 1                 485Membership 39 82 60 90 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 751Grants 3,022 677 404 212 212 212 212 212 212 212 212 212 6,011Total Turnover 6,709 5,907 5,628 5,863 6,772 6,772 7,772 7,272 7,772 7,772 7,772 6,272 82,283COST OF SALES                          

Bought-in produce 3,361 2,966 2,632 3,636 3,438 2,813 2,500 1,875 2,188 2,188 2,500 2,500 32,595Farm running 3,925 1,686 1,766 1,075 300 1,000 150 150 900 100 100 800 11,952Total 7,286 4,652 4,398 4,711 3,738 3,813 2,650 2,025 3,088 2,288 2,600 3,300 44,547                           Gross Profit -577 1,255 1,230 1,152 3,035 2,960 5,122 5,247 4,685 5,485 5,172 2,972 37,736

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EXPENSES                          Employment 1,450 1,535 1,980 1,685 2,250 2,900 2,900 2,250 2,250 2,250 2,250 2,250 25,950Central costs 679 761 1,137 678 800 800 800 800 800 800 800 800 9,655Van 423 1,164 600 980 600 600 600 600 600 600 600 600 7,967Depreciation 345 345 345 345 345 345 345 345 345 345 345 345 4,140Total Expenses 2,897 3,805 4,062 3,688 3,995 4,645 4,645 3,995 3,995 3,995 3,995 3,995 47,712                           Net Profit -3,474 -2,550 -2,832 -2,536 -961 -1,686 477 1,252 690 1,490 1,177 -1,023 -9,976*=Actual                          

TURNOVER Jan-14 Feb-14 Mar-14 Apr-14 May-14 Jun-14 Jul-14 Aug-14 Sep-14 Oct-14 Nov-14 Dec-14 2014 (Year)Veg Van sales 3,000 3,500 3,500 3,500 3,500 3,500 3,500 3,000 3,500 3,500 3,500 3,000 40,500Farmers Market 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 36,000Wholesale             1,200 1,200 1,200 1,200 1,200   6,000Membership 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 780Grants 212 212 212 212 212 212 212 212 212 212 212 212 2,544Total Turnover 6,277 6,777 6,777 6,777 6,777 6,777 7,977 7,477 7,977 7,977 7,977 6,277 85,824COST OF SALES                          

Bought-in produce 2,813 3,125 3,125 3,125 3,125 2,500 1,875 1,563 1,563 1,875 2,188 2,188 29,063Farm running 650 3,150 1,900 1,000 150 900 150 150 900 150 150 900 10,150Total 3,463 6,275 5,025 4,125 3,275 3,400 2,025 1,713 2,463 2,025 2,338 3,088 39,213                           Gross Profit 2,815 502 1,752 2,652 3,502 3,377 5,952 5,765 5,515 5,952 5,640 3,190 46,612EXPENSES                          Employment 2,250 2,250 2,250 2,250 2,250 2,250 2,250 2,250 2,250 2,250 2,250 2,250 27,000Central costs 800 800 800 800 800 800 800 800 800 800 800 800 9,600Van 600 600 600 600 600 600 600 600 600 600 600 600 7,200Depreciation 345 345 345 345 345 345 345 345 345 345 345 345 4,140Total Expenses 3,995 3,995 3,995 3,995 3,995 3,995 3,995 3,995 3,995 3,995 3,995 3,995 47,940                           Net Profit -1,181 -3,493 -2,243 -1,343 -493 -618 1,957 1,770 1,520 1,957 1,645 -806 -1,329

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Cultivate Profit & Loss Account 6/12/11 - 31/12/12 Actual 2012 Original ForecastTURNOVER    

Sales from van/farmersʼ markets 33,416 51,576

Grants & Donations 9,462 18,968

Interest received 39 0

Membership subscriptions 577 1,033

Sales to restaurants 2,676 16,500

  46,169 88,077

COST OF SALES    

Farm Running Costs 23,822 16,772

Produce bought-in 16,453 20,578

Contract work 1,465 0

  41,739 37,350

     

GROSS PROFIT 4,430 50,727

     

LESS EXPENSES    

Central Running Costs 12,847 10,470

Depreciation 3,675 9,753

Employment 29,820 37,189

Van Running Costs 10,560 13,672

  56,902 71,084

     

NET PROFIT -52,472 -20,357

Cultivate Balance Sheet as at 31/12/12  FIXED ASSETS  Van & Adaptations 13,365Farm Equipment 10,018Depreciation -3,676Total Fixed Assets 19,706   CURRENT ASSETS  Debtors (owed from customers) 474Current Account 25,463VAT Control 305GoCardless (membership Direct Debit account) 42Total Current Assets 26,285   CURRENT LIABILITIES  Creditors: Trade (amounts owed to suppliers) 1,791Deferred grant 8,636Total Current Liabilities 10,427   Fixed Assets + Current Assets less Current Liabilities: 35,564   CAPITAL AND RESERVES  Share capital 88,036Profit and loss reserves -52,472Total Capital and Reserves 35,564

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Cultivate has achieved a great deal in a short space of time. After a year of getting stuck into so many and

diverse activities and new areas of work, we are now looking ahead to how to consolidate our

achievements and make them sustainable into the future. Achieving financial sustainability is likely to

involve the development of new routes to market, some further investment in retail and logistics, and the

recruitment of new core staff to build these projects. At the same time, we are looking to deliver greater

social impact though a more significant programme of training and movement-building activities. An over-

arching aim spanning these priorities is to open up involvement and leadership in Cultivate to many more

people, harnessing and channeling their skills and enthusiasm to realise our enormous collective capacity

as a community organisation.

Aiming for sustainability

Existing routes to market including the VegVan, markets and wholesale have not generated the levels of income hoped for. Some additional income can be generated through adding further VegVan stops and market days, however in order to do this, funding will be required to increase refrigerated storage capacity, and the lack of security of tenure on warehouse space remains an issue to be dealt with before much further growth can be considered. The Board is currently of the opinion that in the long term it will be necessary to develop further routes to market to ensure financial sustainability for Cultivate, including paying a living wage to core staff and providing return on investment for founding members. Identifying and delivering these new business elements will be an exciting challenge for the year ahead, and one in which we look forward to involving new voices and leaders from within our membership and community.

Building the movement

Our work over the past year has revealed an underserved demand in Oxfordshire for food that protects biodiversity and supports the local economy. One of our priorities is to find new ways to serve this demand. But we can only go so far as a single organisation. By connecting together food businesses, local government, education and training providers, academics and citizens, new and innovative partnerships can emerge; and by having a joint public presence we can help even more consumers make ethical choices and become involved in our movement. Over the next period we aim to use the basis of the relationships and network we have built to date in order to develop projects which increase

6. THE FUTURE

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awareness of seasonality and agriculture and increase access to local food across all sections of the community, creating opportunities for cross-sectoral collaborations.

Broadening leadership and involvement

We need deeper engagement from more people to make all of this possible. We have been overwhelmed by the help we have received from members and volunteers in Cultivate’s first year. Over the next year we are aiming to make Cultivate a more open organisation in which more people feel empowered to take leadership roles. Better induction, management and development of volunteers will play a part in this. We are also creating management Teams for core areas of the organisation, so that volunteers who want to be more actively involved in running Cultivate on a regular basis can develop clear roles and responsibilities and have real impact. We will be launching these Teams over the next few months, and encourage anyone interested to get in touch to help us develop the concept!

Cultivate is people-powered!

How to get involved | Over the last year, Cultivate has grown from scratch to encompass over 350 members and over 100 volunteers. Volunteers do all sorts of things, from working at the market garden to programming apps, from helping at a VegVan stop or market stall to advising on employment law. Anyone who wants to be part of Cultivate is invited to get in touch –  whether you want to turn up and do some practical work for a few hours, to make a regular volunteering commitment, or to get involved in overall strategy and project development.

More details at www.cultivateoxford.org/get-involved or email info@cultivateoxford.org

Cultivate is part of:

Cultivate gratefully acknowledges the support of:

Thank you to everyone who has had a hand in the achievements listed in this report. You are truly too many to list, numbering in the hundreds. Together

we are bringing people-powered food to Oxford!

Cultivate Oxfordshire Ltd14 Southdale Road, Oxford OX2 7SD

www.cultivateoxford.org | 07507 566 137@cultivateoxford | www.facebook.com/CultivateOxford

Thanks to those who let us use their brilliant photos and

drawings: Whitney Conti; Anita Poushan; Frank Havemann;

Imogen Foxell; mimsaxl.photography; Fran Monks; Graham Read; Julian Cottee; Emma Burnett

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