Building Connected Communities: Reflections on the Twinning Programme

Our Twinning programme has created four pairings between an urban social justice organisation working with food and a nearby rural Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) scheme. Running since 2024 and supported by the National Lottery Community Fund, the programme aims to build bridges between previously unconnected communities and centre social justice work in the agroecological movement. 

Games Day

As part of the Twinning programme, Stroud Community Agriculture (SCA) recently hosted families from Somali Kitchen, for a day of outdoor games. 

Founded in 2001, SCA is one of the longest-established Community Supported Agriculture farms in the UK, aiming to build a community around the production of food. Somali Kitchen is run by Somali women for women from migrant backgrounds who are living in Bristol, and focuses on the themes of healthy food, healthy families and healthy lifestyles. The two organisations have been organising activities together for three years.

The day was busy, including a farm tour, a shared lunch, and farm games such as welly wanging and a potato and spoon race. Adults and children from both communities participated in the activities, getting to know each other better through the day. The day ended with singing and dancing led by women from Somali Kitchen.

A participant from Somali Kitchen described Games Day as a highlight, saying:

“The families who visited the farm learned more about how food is grown in the UK and gained confidence spending time in a rural environment […] Many families expressed an interest in visiting the farm again.”

Building connection through sharing food

Over the last few years, the Twinning programme has been working against a background of rising anti-migrant narratives both in political conversations and on our streets.

Throughout the programme, our Food Justice team has been hearing about the impacts of these rhetoric and rising street violence and intimidation. Some participants have shared fears about attending events. Whilst these issues are not new, we have noticed that since the 2024 riots in particular, we’ve been hearing participants tell us things like: 

“We are getting a lot more racist attacks than we used to do. We have to be careful where we go.” 

While we hear troubling examples of division and fear in communities, we also hear how sharing food, recipes and cultures around food is a powerful tool to enable people who wouldn’t otherwise meet to connect and to learn about each other in safer environments:

“We get all sorts of people coming to our food projects, all together. … In here people are mixing OK and people still feel safe to come.”

Simple gestures of care to new friends can be profoundly appreciated. In one instance, in the aftermath of riots, members of a CSA travelled to deliver gifts of vegetables, cakes and messages of solidarity to their Twinned partners: 

”We feel support from our new rural friends at this time. We didn’t expect so much support.”

Looking forward

Through our Twinning work we have seen that there is a growing movement of people working hard in their communities to create inclusive and welcoming events and spaces.

The ethos of community connection we saw at the Twinning games day is being carried forward throughout Twinning activities this Autumn. Somali Kitchen and SCA will continue to develop their relationship at an upcoming Harvest Festival event where SCA will again welcome Somali Kitchen to the farm. Another of our twin pairs, the CAE (a migrant employability charity in Swansea) and Cae Tan (a CSA on the Gower), look forward to a programme of heritage sharing activities, involving local walks and fire pit sessions to share traditions, food cultures, and stories.

The Twinning programme is unique in that it doesn’t have prescribed outcomes that Twins must achieve – we simply facilitate bringing two communities together, for them to explore together what is in their best interest. We have been continuously inspired by the way these communities have come together, sharing friendship, culture, and stories over food, and enriching one another’s lives.

One of the most significant things about the Twinning programme is the way it prioritises the connective power of joy through events that bring people together around fun, games and community. Amid a background of hostile circumstances, the Twins have built more connected and diverse communities – and even made room to wang a welly once in a while!

For more information see:

“Neutrality is not enough: why anti-racism matters in food and farming”  A recent webinar by Sustain and Eating Better on challenging far-right narratives in food and farming, where Our Twinning Programme Manager, James Beecher presented alongside Sølvi Naja, member of Hate Out Of Farming (HOOF) – a Landworkers Alliance initiative, and Letesia Gibson of New Ways.

“Combatting Hate In Food And Farming: Practical Actions For Solidarity” – 80 minute video recording of a session at the Oxford Real Farming Conference.

“‘We tell stories, we laugh, we eat’: Reflections from the Twinning Project” – our previous blogpost.