Canalside Community Food is run by a small but very committed group of people, the original core of whom have been meeting since the Summer 2005.  We are a diverse group, ranging from farmers to organic researchers, but what we do all share are strong beliefs in local food and community empowerment, and in particular what we are doing in starting up this specific project.  For your interest, below is a brief profile of all the people on the Canalside workforce, just so you know who we are and how to recognise us when we come to meet each other!


Tom and Caz Ingall live and work on the farm with their 2 daughters, Tallis and Kerewin.  Before moving here in 2002, their work focussed on HIV/AIDS, particularly in Africa, and they both spent some time in Zimbabwe and Tanzania doing HIV/AIDS related work. Since living on the farm, however, they have reconnected with their roots in this country and have moved further towards a farming way of life.  They feel very strongly about all environmental issues and about organic/local food production in particular.   Having access to farmland as they do, they feel a large responsibility to use the land to the greatest environmental and social benefits as possible, hence the creation of Canalside Community Food.   Tom is a part-time grower for the project.
 

Pete Corbett comes from Godalming in Surrey, and has spent the last few years growing organic veg in Scotland, Wales and most recently at Tolhurst Organic Produce in Oxfordshire. He is particularly interested in working horses and ponies - the possiblities of truly solar, biological energy. Having moved to Leamington in November 09, he is still finding his feet and getting used to town life. Outside agriculture his interests include Buddhist practice, hiking,  camping and wilderness experience, and the crafts associated with the outdoor life, though he actually spends much more of his spare time reading about these things than actually doing them.  Pete is the main grower for the project. 

Charlie Swallow Although Charlie had always had a passion for the natural world and environmental issues she first became interested in growing after finishing her degree in Geography down in Brighton where she volunteered on a community allotment project. She returned to Warwickshire in 2008 and started working as a gardener at Ryton Organic Gardens as well as becoming a workshare at Canalside. Spending a year being involved in the farm in this way, she got to know what a great project it was and how Community Supported Agriculture can help us move towards a more sustainable way of living and producing food. Therefore it was a delight to be employed as a grower in November 2009. Outside of the farm she is also interested in Vippassana meditation, Ayurveda and walking around in peaceful places. Charlie is one of the part-time growers on the project.



Ali Jeffery returned from Pakistan (where she worked as a VSO volunteer), convinced that the supermarket culture has it all wrong in the way it divorces people from the food production process, the land where their food is grown and their local environment. She started growing a few veggies on the roof of her boat so that she could have fresh organic food and be in touch with the growing process, but then discovered something even better: she came across the newly established Canalside Community Food at the Peace Festival shortly after returning to Warwick in 2007 and was a workshare on the project from that summer for two years. A six-month break for a round-the-world trip saw her leave the project temporarily, but she’s back in Warwick again. She is involved in Canalside’s embryonic schools’ project and can’t wait to teach local school children about the wonders of local, organic, seasonal veggies in the near future!
Ali is the General Administrator for the project.


Fiona Cottrell took over the running of the CSA accounts in Otober 2009.   She recently qualified as a Management Accountant after many years of studying, and also works as a Finance Officer for an international human rights charity based in Moreton-in-Marsh. She has been part of the CSA since the first pig club, and lives in Cubbington with Gareth Davies  (one of Canalside’s founding members), and their three children Joe, Chrissie and Eliza.  Fiona is the Finance Administrator for Canalside. 


And here are pictures of our brilliant workshare volunteers (updated November 2009):


March 2010
Current members of our Steering Group are: Tom & Caz Ingall, Gareth Davies, Judy Steele, Fiona Cottrell, Ali Jeffery, John Liddamore, Pete Corbett, Lucy Bishop, Charlie Swallow and Tony Mindham.

To download any of Canalside Community Food's policy statements, please click on the relevant title below:
Environmental Policy Statement
Equal Opportunities Policy
Health & Safety Policy