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I had always been interested in living a bit more lightly on the planet. At one point I read an article in a magazine and it was talking about how if you really wanted to have an impact you need to look out beyond your own private life and make things happen more widely. It really resonated, so I thought well I need to find a group where I can do this.
Originally I joined a group that was just trying to reduce plastic bag use in supermarkets. Through them I found Sustainable Wantage and thought “I've found my people”. I got sucked in as a volunteer initially, I didn’t have loads of time to give when the children were small. But when we took over The Mix I got more and more involved.
Sustainable Wantage started about 15 years ago, at the beginning it was about campaigning and awareness raising, now it's more about practical sustainability projects. In 2013 we registered as a Community Benefit Society and took on three main activities: a woodland we look after, a market garden, and a town centre venue which we've made into "The Mix" a community sustainability hub. The Mix is in a building for which we have a private lease.
For a long time everyone was a volunteer, but over time we’ve built that up and now have one employee and 3 part time contractors.
Sustainable Wantage addresses the need of people who want to live more sustainably but can’t because there are not as many “sustainable options” around here as there are in bigger towns. Lots of things exist in Wantage now, that were not here before we started: The Repair Cafe, the Community Fridge, the Library of Things, biodiversity activities with our Wild Wantage project, a small Refill Shop and The Mix.
Our environmental impact is reducing waste and reducing energy, looking after ecosystems. Socially our biggest impact is people realising they can do something about the huge and terrifying challenge of the climate emergency. Everyone contributes in a different way: some people look after the wildflower meadow, others run the community food larder, others run the Draughtbuster scheme - plus many other activities.
We had 188 volunteers work with us last year. People come and get involved and feel part of something. At a time where most of the shops on the highstreet are big businesses, it gives people a sense of place and belonging to the town of Wantage.
At the beginning the group was really just about sustainability and sustainable living. Now it's also about saving money- we work a lot more now with people who need to use our projects in order to help them make ends meet.
By raising awareness and giving people an idea that they have the power to do something, we’ve also inspired others. One lady who used to volunteer with our food waste projects decided to do something about all the food surplus. She started these “cook-ins” where they would use surplus food to make meals together. Now she runs a food surplus community cafe “Down to Earth”, that has its own premises in a MakeSpace building and is open 4 days a week: https://downtoearthcafe.co.uk/
We’ve had support from other similar organisations who’ve helped us set up services: Broken Spoke in Oxford Vale Community Impact (the advice and support service in Wantage), CAG, Draughtbusters Reading... and we've supported other new projects in our turn.
We’ve had support from local councilors, but the machinery of the local authorities make it very hard for them to support what we are really doing. Things get lost in all the committees and officers and we often don’t hear back for very long periods.
We also run our Community Larder in a building that belongs to the District Council, but we have to find the money to pay for this which costs us almost £5,000 a year. About 100 people collect food from our community larder each week. Some people come to save food waste, others come to cut down their shopping bill. 50% of people say they rely ‘moderately or heavily’ on the Larder to do their shopping which does show the impact we’re having on food poverty and cost of living challenges.
Infrastructure for smaller towns
In smaller places it's often harder to make sustainable choices because options are limited- or if they are there they are irregular pop ups. Having a space, or funding or other kinds of support would enable a more reliable offer for more people to make sustainable choices. Every town needs a sustainability focused space like the Mix!
Access to skilled volunteers
It would be great to not have to learn everything ourselves! If we could enlist voluntary support for small amounts of time from professionals, say an accountant or a solicitor, that would save our board of local directors a lot of time and mistakes. So much of what we’re doing we’re teaching ourselves, but there are opportunities for people from a wider range of backgrounds to be involved.
Core funding/support
A lot of my time is spent applying and reporting on grants. If there were some kind of provision of free or shared space or unrestricted funds, we could get on with doing the work instead of applying to make it happen. At the moment we can often get bits of support for new projects, but carrying on existing projects is harder.
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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