Our second feature as part of our Good Food Fortnight series is with the wonderful Tuppenny Barn in Southbourne. It is hard to sum up Tuppenny Barn in a few sentences as it is such a special place.
At Tuppenny Barn they grow and sell organic produce, run educational programmes for children and horticultural therapy schemes for adults, run workshops, events and activities for the community all year round and have ambitious plans to build a new multi-purpose community café and shop to serve as a training facility for vulnerable young people and adults. It is their 20th anniversary this year and we are thrilled that their Tuppenny Food Festival celebration falls during the Arun & Chichester Good Food Fortnight!
We spoke to the brilliant Maggie and Rosemary about their involvement –
How are you involved in the Good Food Fortnight?
Tuppenny Barn has three events during the fortnight. On the first Thursday during our shop we will have The Deer Project with Ben Marks having a stand.
On the second Thursday we will have the gardening team answering questions on growing fruit and veg with some of our seasonal produce. We are also hoping to have Blue Fig Deli one of our local suppliers.
On 4th Oct this is our big celebration of 20 years that the charity has been established. We will have local artisan food and drink stands both in the centre and in the marquee showcasing their products with tasters for participants. There will be music and also food themed children’s activities. The event is from 10 – 2pm.
Why did you want to be involved and what do you hope to get out of the events?
Food education is one of our core charitable activities with just under 2000 young people welcomed across our threshold each year. They are from aged three up to university age and we aim to enthuse them about eating fresh local produce, growing and eating healthily. We also follow this theme through to our other activities, particularly with those that are considered vulnerable. Knowing national statistics for both food poverty and obesity are huge, we try to get across how people might access fresh food, facilitate cooking for school and college trips and our three green therapy young people programmes and talk about ultra-processed food and a healthy diet. As Soil Association producers we are the largest suppliers of organic fruit and vegetables in the locality.
What do you hope to get out of your event/activity?
Hopefully increase our regular customer base, introduce the local community to other local artisan producers and showcase our charitable activities.
How can people get involved in your work all year round and what can people do to support your activities?
We offer a regular volunteer programme for all our activities covering the education team, shop, the outdoor classroom for experienced gardeners and also for our events. We have volunteer ‘jammers’ that make all our chutneys, jams, fruit vinegars and anything else from produce grown on site. The local community can support the events we run including the upcoming Tuppenny Food Fest and also our pub quid held every couple of months – we supply a homemade supper as part of the ticket using as much seasonal Tuppenny produce wherever possible.
Find out more on our website: tuppennybarn.co.uk
What, if anything, would you like to see change with our local and/or national food system ?
In our view we feel the national food system is broken. There is no real support for farmers or horticulture producers, despite the government stating they want this country to grow as much food as possible. Food security is an issue now and was highlighted how vulnerable we are having seen it breakdown so quickly during Covid. We need to see more support for our local producers.
Thank you so much to Maggie and Rosemary for their time and for all they are doing to celebrate local food and improve education around how food is produced – can’t wait for the Tuppenny Food Fest!
