How digital storytelling can promote urban food growing

As part of the ‘Digital Storytelling and Community Food Growing’ project, growers in London and Reading have produced stories describing how growing food in their cities has created community resilience, a sense of collaboration and inclusion and extended their social networks during what has been an otherwise turbulent year.

The 'Visual Storytelling about Community Food Growing' course was piloted in Spring 2021 and developed by the Cobra Collective. Participants got a chance to develop and hone their skills in digital visual storytelling while also exploring and sharing their experiences of community food growing through the pandemic. The films are now available to the wider public.

Watch the digital stories

The stories gathered from the action research project so far have demonstrated how community food growing initiatives provide crucial social assets in our urban communities through their cooperative and socially resilient practices. They've also described how gardens adapted and responded to the challenges of the pandemic and could respond to future disruptions.

We encourage community growing spaces and groups to share, screen, and discuss these stories, as well as generate new stories by participating in the upcoming Autumn course and taking the online module.

Find out about the online module

Contact us

The project is a partnership between The Open University, Cobra Collective, Reading International Solidarity Centre and Capital Growth. 

Read more about the project