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Chewell Collective started with an attempt at setting up an electric car exchange while I was on maternity leave. That didn’t work out, no one was really interested in it. After the birth of my second child I would make these really elaborate birthday party sets out of cardboard for my kids. They were almost like theatre play-sets. Eventually I was like, can I share this? So the ‘Party Library’ was the first part of the Cherwell Collective. There was my garage, and also other parents had things in their homes. We had everything you needed for a princess party, a pirate party etc. I mean how many cake tins does a neighbourhood really need?
When the pandemic started some other parents and I at the school were concerned for those families receiving free school meals. As a group of parents we set up a support group for families who had 3 or more kids on free school meals - it was 12 families and 12 mums supporting them. So we would just take from our gardens and pockets and cook and share our food for them.
I did create a form to see who else needed help. But suddenly 300 people had signed up- from all over the country. So that made me realise the problem was a lot bigger! I contacted SOFEA and they told me there was no larder in Kidlington. So I decided we needed one. I went to the Oxford Food Hub with 2 vans and had no idea what I was doing and said “I have 150 people who need food!”. Cathy said “what are your credentials?” I didn't have any credentials…I just had a list of 150 people. Cathy turned to me and said, “Well ok, you have an honest face. That's credentials enough.” And we set up the Cherwell Larder.
We did a survey and asked people what kind of food they wanted - these were people experiencing food poverty - and they said, whatever would otherwise be wasted. From there I reached out to the people receiving food parcels and people were able to start helping me run it. So we set up this peer to peer support; it was always really important Cherwell larder was peer to peer. 4 years later almost all of the volunteers working in our shop started as Larder-users.
We sometimes didn’t get enough surplus food, so I was also topping up parcels with vegetables from my garden. That's really how Harvest at Home started. Yarnton Garden Centre donated pre-seeded lettuce, radish, tomato plants and we delivered them to the people getting food parcels. We ran demonstrations in the park- I remember a really comic session where we were planting the seeds and were social distancing at the same time in the park - like we couldn’t get close to each other.
The last part of Cherwell Collective to set up was WISH (Waste Innovation Station Hubs). People were asking me: “if we can stop food going to waste, can we also do it with clothes and objects etc too?” We secured funds from the National Lottery fund to set up this shop that is all about reusing and repurposing.
We do community wealth building here because we help people be better off in the place they are living. We are part of the circular economy. We’re providing a way in which people can waste less, spend less, and value their time.
Everyone is welcome at WISH and the Cherwell Collective and that means everyone. That we remain open to all is critical. We are working with people who are not yet engaged with climate change. We create infrastructure to facilitate climate-friendly behavior, for people to be able to make the decisions they need to lower carbon footprints and waste.
Our research is really clear- just giving out food is not enough. We provide a well rounded service: we signpost, we eat together, we build stuff together, we run a community cafe. That's why we need hubs like this- wraparound support. Its also a climate literacy programme. People learn about the Carbon Cost of food, fashion, transport, and other daily choices where small changes in behaviour can make a big difference.
Our greatest ally at the outset was Cathy at The Oxford Food Hub. Cathy trusted me when I was just a local resident trying to get something going. But we have had support from so many people and organisations, including from the army during Covid and Oxford United Football Club. Cherwell District Council has been a really important ally. For them this comes under ‘healthy place shaping’. They have helped us to link to other providers in the area, so we’ve got a really good directory of how to signpost people.
We also work with the food bank here. Cherwell Collective has a different model to them. Ours is more about peers creating projects that support each other. But I love Melvina who runs the food bank and we work together. We refer to them and they refer to us. It's a sort of weaning process when people come to us.
Promote the circular economy
We need to do this in a more strategic way. At the moment the infrastructure to support circular or reuse economics is reactive- and that is inefficient. We should be planning and strategising about how we can build resilient infrastructure for the circular economy so that we can build communities that function within resource allocations.
Decarbonisation and Oxford as a model
We should be making Oxford very unfriendly to unstable industries through taxation. Oxford is known for being a global knowledge base. People look at Oxford because we are seen as “the smart ones”. So we need to make Oxford a model of what a resilient, social economy looks like - where people are supported to invest in their communities and re-use and re-purpose and make climate friendly decisions. We need to make decarbonising an extremely important priority, immediately. Like right now. We need to be diva-like, and be respected for it.
Better use of buildings and assets
We need to use buildings in Oxfordshire more effectively- to create the infrastructure in communities so that people can make the right choices. On Cornmarket, instead of Primark and McDonalds and the likes we need shops where buying surplus is possible. Spaces for innovation and repurposing waste. We need to free up spaces for the future economy: the decarbonised, circular economy to be. To me it's absolutely ludicrous to allow valuable space in the city centre, in a centre of knowledge, to be used by McDonalds! No one is going to take decarbonising seriously if Oxford doesn’t. The world looks to Oxford.
This case study is part of the 'Community wealth building: big conversations' project. These case studies are in the voice of the people who gave them. They seek to honestly present their successes, as well as the challenges of trying to build a more just, sustainable economy and community. We encourage conversation - so if you want to get in touch and talk more to any of the groups, please do.
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