Growing Food growing for health and wellbeing The Lincolnshire Master Gardener Programme Lincolnshire Growing Case Study area: and well-being This series of Growing case studies provide examples of projects which use food growing in the community to provide health benefit.
Key client groups The Lincolnshire Master Gardener Programme is open to people of all ages and backgrounds living across the seven districts of Lincolnshire. Although the Master Gardener Programme is open to everyone, priority is given to people living in the most deprived areas, with a target of 60% of households being in the 40% most deprived areas (by Multiple Depravation Index). Summary of services The programme supports local people and communities to benefit from growing their own food at home, on their allotment or on other communal land. The programme involves recruiting, training and supporting volunteers, called Master Gardeners, who mentor and support people in their local neighbourhoods to grow food. This includes people who want to start growing food and those want to grow more. They also promote food growing in their wider community through events, talks, articles, schools and community spaces. The Master Gardener programme is closely linked with the cooking and healthy eating project in Lincolnshire s Food 4 Life programme, which aims to generate opportunities for residents to improve their skills, knowledge, social networks and ultimately their health and lifestyles. Funding and partners The Master Gardener Programme in Lincolnshire started in 2011 and was first commissioned through East Lindsey and Boston Councils. They saw the programme as a way to support their fledgling community growing programmes, by accessing funding from NHS Lincolnshire and the and Wellbeing Fund, a partnership between Lincolnshire County Council and NHS Lincolnshire. Subsequently, the districts of West Lindsey, North Kesteven, South Kesteven and South Holland joined the programme. Following the two year pilot, the Master Gardener Programme is now centrally commissioned through Lincolnshire County Council Public and has incorporated Lincoln City to provide full county coverage, linking with existing cooking and healthy eating schemes. Background Lincolnshire has a total population of 781,800 people, living across seven district councils in a mainly agricultural landscape. Life expectancy is similar to the national average and while deprivation is lower than the national average, there are pockets of deprivation. Obesity levels are slightly higher than the national average and 5-a-day consumption is in line with national average though lower in some districts. Cooking and healthy eating projects have been active in Lincolnshire for a number of years and in 2009 the programme was expanded to include community growing. The aim of this was to enable adults and families to build confidence, develop knowledge and skills around healthy eating and cooking and to grow their own produce. A total of 49 growing sites were established involving over 700 food growers. The Master Gardener Programme was introduced in 2011, establishing a network for volunteer mentors to support the community growing spaces as well as people in the wider community. Links with local health priorities The Lincolnshire Master Gardner Programme supports the work of the Joint and Wellbeing Strategy for Lincolnshire around promoting healthier lifestyles, in particular the priorities to reduce the number of adults who are overweight and obese and to support people to be more active more often. The programme also supports the cross-cutting theme of mental health, which is included within the strategy. The programme is commissioned to deliver against the Public Outcome Framework supporting domains 1 and 2 and under the following main indicators: Domain 1: Improving the wider determinants of health improvement against wider factors that affect health and wellbeing, and health inequalities. Measured through: Social isolation Utilization of green space for exercise and health reasons Domain 2: improvement people are helped to live healthier lifestyles, make healthier choices and reduce health inequalities. Measured through: Diet Self-reported wellbeing
Service aims and delivery The Lincolnshire Master Gardener Programme supports local people and communities to benefit from growing their own food at home, on their allotments or other communal land. The programme is run by Garden Organic who establish and support the network of volunteer mentors, called Master Gardeners, who in turn support people in the neighborhoods to grow food. The volunteer role and the recruitment plan are defined in partnership with local funders and stakeholders to ensure social and health impacts. The training programme consists of a two-day induction course for the volunteers followed by regular in-service training. The induction focuses on how to communicate and inspire practical food growing, but also covers organic horticulture information and the aims and objectives of the local Public programme. Master Gardeners have access to materials to support practical activities and a dedicated interactive website connecting new food growers to their nearest Master Gardener. The programme employs a locally based coordinator to supports the volunteers and the activities of the network. Following the induction training, Master Gardeners become part of a local support network with shared contact details and a personal action plan to begin their volunteer role. Volunteers are requested to contribute 30 hours of volunteering per year, provide regular support for 10 food growers in their area and to promote food growing to 50 people in their wider community. At present there are 74 active Master Gardeners in Lincolnshire, who since April 2011 have contributed a total of 2453 volunteer hours, mentored over 700 people on a regular basis and held 9,111 food growing conversations with the wider pubic. The programme is run alongside the following activities Community Gardens: As part of the two year pilot, over 40 community gardens were established with support from the District Councils. Today, many of these community gardens are actively supported by Master Gardeners. Cooking and healthy eating events: Master Gardeners run talks and demonstrations relating to growing your own fruit and vegetables alongside the cooking demonstrations at local events. Food for Life Partnership: this partnership is committed to transforming food culture in schools, and number of the Lincolnshire Master Gardeners provide support for the food growing activities in these schools.
Outcomes As an intervention the Garden Organic Master Gardener programme has been shown to create sustained behavioural change and to have positive impacts for people and communities. External evaluation carried out by Coventry University has shown wide-ranging benefits for both the volunteers and for the people they support, with positive impacts relating to health, social wellbeing and environmental sustainability. After 12 months involvement; proportion of respondents Volunteers Food growers Number of hours spent growing food per week 50% households spend 1-2 hrs/wk; 27% volunteers spend 8+ hrs/wk 44% 67% Amount of fruit and vegetables consumed per day Average 4.5 portions/day for households; 5 portions/day for volunteers 14% 19% Average life satisfaction 7% increase for households; 10% increase for volunteers 84% 77% Satisfaction with feeling part of a community 61% 34% Social Knowledge of food growing 94% 88% Amount spent of food 24% 29% Amount of food grown 55% 77% Environment Range of food grown 66% 76% Changed food purchasing habits (e.g. buying local food) 47% 40% Amount of food or garden waste composted 29% 36% Research from Coventry University; 299 respondents, August 2013 A Social Return of Investment (SROI) analysis of the Master Gardener Programme showed that the intervention had benefited participants by improving physical health, mental health and wellbeing, by increasing community participation and life satisfaction and by making food more affordable. The SROI ratio calculated indicated that every 1 invested in the Master Gardener programme has generated, on average, 10.70 in social, economic and environmental benefits (Schmutz, Courteny and Bos, 2014). The overall programme of Lincolnshire Food 4 Life projects have also been externally evaluated by Sheffield Hallam University, concluding the outcomes relating to building social capital, effective joined up working, opportunities for personal development, employability and economic impact and health, including increased weight management for those over and under weight, improved knowledge and nutrition, healthy eating, food hygiene and portion size and weight loss form some individuals.
Key challenges Reaching all areas of Lincolnshire: Lincolnshire County is a large geographical area, and effective coverage is dependent on volunteers coming forward and offering to be recruited as Master Gardeners for their neighbourhoods. There is a continuous need to raise awareness of the programme over such a wide area and liaising with council partners and other agencies is essential. Engaging with hard- to-reach communities can also be a challenge and again the solution lies in recruiting Master Gardeners from communities and engaging people through their social networks. Evidencing measurable impact: collecting evidence on the outcomes and impact of the Master Gardener Programme continues to be essential for the successful re-commissioning of the intervention in future. Key opportunities Public : The centrally commissioned Public Programme integrating community growing, cooking and healthy eating provides an excellent opportunity for effective joined up working and delivering to the desired health outcomes. Supporting documents Gregory M. and E. Cooley, 2013.Evaluation of the Lincolnshire Food 4 Life Projects. Sheffield Hallam University Garden Organic, 2014. Growing for health and happiness. The health, social and environmental impacts of Master Gardeners. http:// mastergardeners.org.uk/2015/01/13/the-healthsocial-and-environmental-impacts-of-mastergardeners/ Schmutz, U., Courtney, P. and E. Bos, 2014. Growing for health and happiness. The Social Return on Investment (SROI) of the Master Gardener Programme. Garden Organic, Coventry UK Key contact details Rick Aron Co-ordinator Lincolnshire Master Gardener Programme. Garden Organic, Coventry CV8 3LG lincolnshire.mastergardeners.org.uk www.gardenorganic.org.uk 07584 474779 Produced June 2015 Growing is a national project run by Garden Organic and Sustain, which is funded by the Tudor Trust, to see how community food growing can be routinely used by the health and social care services as a way of promoting health and wellbeing for a range of individuals and population groups. To sign up to the Growing network visit www.growinghealth.info Growing Food growing for health and wellbeing