Neighbourhood Produce Exchange

A Sustainable Living Kid’s Activity

How many people in your area have an enthusiastic lemon tree which produces more than they can use… an abundant grape vine… or a whole garden full of lovingly grown fruits and veggies?  Often excess produce ends up going to waste, but that doesn’t need to be the case.  The sharing of this bounty can be a part of creating greater community in your area, as well as building local food security.

The best way to begin this project is to be growing at least something yourself, which you can offer to share with neighbours.  Maybe you already have some citrus or stone fruit trees in your garden, pots of herbs, or a big healthy rosemary bush.  Or get busy and plant some easy to grow veggies, like tomatoes, herbs or spinach. 

To begin with you could just visit nearby neighbours and offer them some of your produce.  Make it freely available, without expectation of getting anything in return.  If they have something to share, they will no doubt offer you some of it… and they may offer some to another neighbour, who does the same… and so on.

If you want to do this on a more organised scale, have a wander around your neighbourhood and note down any fruit trees or veggies being grown that you can see from the street.

Create a flyer proposing your produce swap idea and pop it in the letterboxes of those houses, or introduce yourselves to the householder and hand the flyer over personally.  You could also put flyers in other letterboxes also, as not all growing produce will be visible from the street.

You may like to hold a weekly, fortnightly or monthly swap day in your front garden or at a local park (check if permission from council is required) where everyone brings along their excess produce to share.

Or you could create a local listing of people with produce to share, which could either be printed and given out, or online somewhere, such as a blog or facebook page. (Be careful with how much information you give out online!)  Then neighbours get in touch and organise sharing between themselves.

Neighbours might also decide to preserve excess food, such as making jam, canning etc, and then share this with others.

You could also check if there’s already a produce exchange happening in your neighbourhood and decide to join forces with that.  Suggest your neighbours join up and all add your produce to local swap meets.


Parents please note: as with any activity involving your children interacting with other people, especially those you don’t really know, it is best if a trusted adult is present, for their safety.