This document draws on the experience of the West Croydon Community Fruit & Vege Swap over five consecutive summers.
By sharing what has worked for us and the principles which have guided our Swap, we hope to inspire many more local Swaps on similar or adapted models.
Starting a Community Fruit & Vege Swap can be very simple. All it takes is one person willing to put up their hand and say ‘I will!’
It’s the gardener’s dilemma: whatever you have, you have by the bucketload – but you’d love some of what your neighbour’s got!
What’s it all about?
A ‘Community Fruit & Vege Swap’ is about fruit & vegetables – of course! Don’t let your surplus go to waste –find a good home for it and take home something different. Swap plants, seeds and cuttings. Share information and problem solve with other gardeners. Get motivated to grow food by sharing ideas about how to cook, eat or preserve what you grow.
AND … it’s about community. The ‘Vege Swap’ brings together people of different generations, backgrounds and walks of life who may otherwise never have met. Get to know your neighbours, feel ‘at home’ in your local area, make friends nearby. Over time our Swap has grown into an informal but powerful local network which provides support to participants during life’s ups and downs.
AND … it’s about sustainability, in the broader sense of changing our behaviours not only to prevent or avoid, but also to cope with environmental changes. The Vege Swap philosophy is that resilience in the future will rely on local networks – people within local areas pooling resources, sharing information, and supporting each other to develop skills, cope with crises, solve problems and find the courage to change. The Vege Swap cultivates ‘greener’ behaviour in many subtle ways.
The Community Fruit & Vege Swap works on the principle of sharing – not direct swapping, trading or bartering. We don’t try to measure the relative values of contributions – it would be impossible. We simply pool the produce and invite everyone to share it. It’s an honour system of sorts – and incredibly, it works.
Swapping evens out over weeks and across seasons. You may bring apricots in summer and take home pears in winter. You may take home someone’s apricots and another person’s jars one week, and next time bring along apricot jam.
Of course, we swap more than fruit and vegetables. Ideas and information flourish in the informal atmosphere. People of diverse backgrounds swap experience and knowledge on many subjects. We bring tangible items –preserves, goodies for morning tea, jars, plants, cuttings, seeds and seedlings – and non tangible contributions such as recipes, local history, gardening tips and good company.
The West Croydon Community Fruit & Vege Swap began in January 2008 when local resident Julietta couldn’t stand the sight of another fig. “Walking around my local area with my baby,
*CERES: Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies www.ceres.org.au
I noticed so many fruit trees and vegetable gardens and I thought: wouldn’t it be great if I could swap some of what I have, for some of what I can see in another person’s garden?”
Inspired by an idea pioneered by CERES* in Melbourne, Julietta created a weekly meeting point for local residents during the summer. The Swap now also runs monthly in the cooler months as a “Winter Open Garden Circle”.
Swap can be very simple - essentially just a time and place to meet. Once the time and place are set and the word is out, the rest unfolds by itself.
Keeping our model uncomplicated has made the West Croydon Swap sustainable in the long term.
Factors we’ve found important to the location of our Swap are:
• shade
• tables
• toilets
• water
• accessibility (e.g. for wheelchairs, walking frames)
A table on which to spread out the produce is essential. Ideally it’s already at the park – the less you need to bring or supply the better. Seating is great but not essential.
Our Swap meets outdoors at a local park during the summer, eliminating the complications of hiring or sourcing venues. In winter we follow a different, ‘cosier’ format – see our website for details.
In our experience, Sunday is a ‘family day’ whereas while Saturday is busy for many people, they can attend early in the day before other activities.
We advertise our swap from 10 – 10.30 am and the actual swapping takes place around 10.30. We have found that publicising a short time span (half an hour) ensures the pooling/ sharing process can take place and then those who need to, can leave. However, most participants stay around to chat for much longer.
Keep it simple. In our experience, the easiest and most effective publicity is:
• posters (simple, A4 size) in local supermarkets/shopping centresalso in libraries, schools, churches, delis, etc
• flyers (A4 page cut into 4 fits easily in letterboxes) distributed within local area
• free notices in the ‘events’ section of local newspapers
There are many other ways of publicizing your event if you have the time and resources: e.g. websites (your own, or listings on related websites), Facebook, the radio, and many more. These are great, but not essential to your Swap’s success.
It can be hard to front up somewhere new. In our experience, it takes very little to turn away a potential swapper. A few small touches make our gathering welcoming and approachable.
Inelegant perhaps, but we’ve found that nametags really help people to feel welcome and comfortable within the group.
We wanted ‘down to earth’ style nametags to keep costs down and to suit the casual, organic spirit of the Swap. So we give ‘one more life’ to cereal packets destined for the recycling bin – cut to business card size, hole-punched, with a safety pin. A texta and spare nametags at the Swap are a good idea, and a small box with alphabetical dividers helps too.
Hot drinks at the Swap are strictly optional, but in our experience, can really ‘grease the wheels’. They create a welcoming atmosphere, and give out a signal that this is about much more than just exchanging fruit and vegetables. Swappers linger over a tea or coffee to compare notes and share
ideas. Participants often bring homemade goodies to our Swap for ‘morning tea’ –these go perfectly with the coffee and tea!
Signage is not strictly necessary, but can help new attendees to find the Swap and also attract the attention of passers-by.
Consider simple options such as:
• vinyl banners can be inexpensive and effective, but do involve an initial cost
• simple cardboard signs using paint or texta can work well
• approach your Local Council or local businesses for assistance with signage, but do consider the impact of sponsors’ requirements for recognition (e.g. logos on the signs) on the perceived independence of your Swap
A website is not essential, but can be a good way for people to find out about your Swap and to share information between swappers. The West Croydon Fruit & Vege Swap’s website includes details of when and where we swap, media clips, recipes, comments, and ‘not-Blog’ articles about our Swap. Facebook, Wordpress and other free online services can provide a webbased space to publicise your Swap free of charge, but remember ‘SIMPLE IS BEAUTIFUL’ and that you do not need a website to run a successful Swap.
At the West Croydon Swap we collect only the most basic contact details –name, email address and telephone number – to keep in touch with those interested in the Swap.
An ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ list helps to separate those who participate regularly, from those who have expressed interest, but don’t attend often and wish only to receive a reminder email once or twice a year.
We respect our contacts by applying strict principles to the details collected:
• we use the list to circulate information about our own Swap only
• we take care to BCC (blind CC) emails rather than displaying email addresses
• we never provide anyone’s details to a third party – even other swappers. Provide the details of the person requesting contact to the person with whom contact is desired, and let them make their decision about whether to respond.
A few important principles protect the spirit of our Swap.
Allowing produce to be purchased at the Swap would undermine the spirit of the Swap and the way it
operates. It would also introduce legal liability issues. At times we’ve found it necessary to be quite firm about this principle. We simply point out that there are other forums – e.g. farmers’ markets – available to those who require a specified return on their wares, or who want to purchase produce.
We’ve opted for very few rules at our Swap because we want everybody to feel welcome and to feel at home at our gathering. Apart from ‘no money changes hands’, there are really no rules. We do not place any limitations on how produce is grown or packaged or brought or presented. For example, it doesn’t have to be organic, vegetarian, wrapped in biodegradable packaging or any other stipulation.
We do swap:
• any kind of fruit & vegetables
• plants, seeds, cuttings
• home made goods including preserves (jams, chutneys etc) and baked goods
• eggs – swapped at swappers’ own risk, since they entail a food safety risk
We DON’T swap:
• meat or meat-based products
• dairy or dairy-based products
• an organization
• a committee
• a budget
• assets, accounts, finance
• membership
In our experience, a Community Fruit & Vege swap can be a truly grassroots,
simple, organic initiative, bringing together local residents in a spirit of community without any need for budgets or accounts, members or committees.
Use the suggestions in this toolkit and Keep it Simple!
Every garden is different – reflecting the character, interests and experience of the gardener. In just the same way, every Fruit & Vege Swap is different. This is exactly as it should be!
YOU (the person who puts up their hand and says ‘I will!’) are the Swap’s most important asset. YOU will make it happen. So do it your way!
Before you start, think about what is sustainable for YOU in the long term. How often can you commit to swap, and over what period? (A month, a season, forever?) What time of day and week can you comfortably manage for the whole period during which you intend to swap? Are there costs involved, and how will you meet them? What will you need to put in, and what do you hope to get out?
Be resourceful. Local businesses or councils may help with the cost of photocopying. Participants at your Swap may have resources they can donate or access (such as a work photocopier). Find cheap or free ways of doing things, and if something is going to cost you, ask yourself: do we really NEED this?
Once your Swap is established, it may be possible to share the load. Our Swap now works on a roster system with a different person each week in the Summer volunteering to ‘host’ the Swap – transport the gear to the park, set up, welcome attendees and bring everything home again safely. It still works on the principle that one person is the Coordinator, the person who says ‘I will!’ and takes responsibility. The Coordinator knows what’s going on, looks after the mailing list, signs and gear, and after consultation with participants makes decisions which are both good for the Swap and feasible for her personally.
Julietta, initiator of the West Croydon Swap, says: “It doesn’t have to be hard – keep it simple. Yes, there was a commitment: an investment of time, effort and a small amount of money. But I’ve always got back far more than I put in.”
