Always on
This project successfully funded on 30th January 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
Get Sims Hill back on the road!
Bristol, Bristol City, United Kingdom
Aim
We need your support to purchase a new delivery van to distribute our vegetables, following severe damage to our vehicle during a break in.
Sims Hill is a community farm where we grow local vegetables, using agro-ecological and organic principles, just two miles from Bristol's city centre. In addition to food growing we also provide a variety of volunteer sessions and educational opportunities.
We operate through the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) frame; this means our members take on the shared risk, shared benefit that comes from growing vegetables. We feed over 180 households in Bristol, who subscribe to a weekly share of our vegetables, committing to support the farm in the longer term. This creates much more stability and support for the farmer in terms of planning what to grow, what to harvest, and who we can afford to employ. The members have decision making power within our farm, giving them direct agency over where and how their food is grown.
Sims Hill also runs community projects, such as Soil Connections, a group open to anyone affected by the asylum system. One of our aims is to make local food accessible, so we keep our prices as accessible as we can, offer a solidarity scheme, provide a workshare program, based on a work exchange system, and donate to food banks and community projects. We hold regular events to our farm, opening up access to land, nutritious food and nature-based activities.
Why we need your help
To deliver our harvest, we rely on a delivery van - and a delivery driver - to reach 8 distribution points across Bristol on a weekly basis. On November 4th, our delivery van was severely damaged during a break in, and had to be written off as a result. The windows were smashed, the tyres slashed, locks broken, and the panel had holes torn into it. In the meantime, we are borrowing a van for temporary use until the end of January 2026.
Although we are insured, the company reported a total loss, and the payout is too small to cover a full replacement. Because the margins are so small in small-scale agriculture, we cannot afford to fill the gap needed to purchase a suitable van to continue weekly deliveries beyond January.
As we have experienced multiple break ins, we also need to improve the security of our site, to protect our tools, so we aim to buy a secure storage container with your support.
5 reasons we think you should support us in raising this fund:
- We need a replacement van to prevent disruption of vegetable delivery.
- We aim to reduce emissions by purchasing a green electric hybrid van.
- We want to look for a van with a higher capacity to accommodate growing membership.
- We use this opportunity to review our storage facilities to minimise risks of economic loss in the future.
- We need an immediate security upgrade for our tool storage facilities.
How can you support Sims Hill?
- Contribute to this crowdfunding campaign
- Help spread this crowdfunding call
- Signing up for as a CSA share member! You can find all info on our how our shares work through our website, via the 'Join us' page.
Thank you for supporting our community farm!
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made