Kirkstall Valley Farm - start up funding

Aim

Help us raise £20,000 to set up a new 16 acre farm in inner Leeds, owned and run by the community

Kirkstall Valley Development Trust has been granted a lease on a 16-acre community farm in Leeds and would like your help in setting it up. The Farm will supply fresh veg to local residents, host community and education projects and be a social focus for the whole of Kirkstall Valley. There are also a set of allotments where organic growers are welcome.

We need around £20,000 for a tractor, equipment, polytunnels, green manure seed, toilets, a collection hut and social area and making the site secure. By the end of 2020 we want to be gearing up for full production.

EVERY £ YOU GIVE WILL BE MATCHED BY A LOCAL BENEFACTOR

The site has been farmed commercially since the '50s, but the tenant (by then in his 80s), died in 2017. Kirkstall Valley Development Trust expressed an interest in taking the lease and a Farm Steering Group was formed that developed a business plan. On the back of that, Leeds City Council have granted us a five year lease beginning in April 2020, with the understanding that this will become a long lease if the project is successful.

Our intention is to use the next year to get ready, organise volunteers, prepare the land and build the structures we'll need. From 2021, by asking veg box growers to pay their year's veg in advance, we intend to appoint a Grower and with our volunteers, go flat out for financial self-sufficiency as a community supported agriculture scheme

We already have 170 registered volunteers / veg box buyers + people with proposals for funded social projects. Please get in touch with [email protected] if you would like to join them.

This project successfully funded on 31st January 2020