Growing Communities’ Dagenham Farm has been awarded £78,000 over two years from the Mayor of London’s Green Roots Fund, enabling a major expansion of environmental education, food growing and climate‑resilient infrastructure across Barking & Dagenham.
The funding will allow the farm to welcome more than 2,500 people for hands‑on learning and wellbeing activities, including 100 school and college visits, 70 open volunteering sessions and two open days and two open evenings each year. Many of these sessions will support young people with special educational needs, mental illness or limited access to nature.
Outside the farm gates, the project will help residents to plant over 1,000 trees and hedgerow plants – including fruit trees – across the borough to boost biodiversity and make neighbourhoods greener. Residents will also be able to recycle food and garden waste while learning practical soil‑building skills through the introduction of a new community composting hub.
Growing Communities is partnering with The Tree Council, who will supply hedgerows and trees for distribution across the borough and deliver workshops on tree care and seed propagation.
Dagenham Farm manager Alice Holden said: “This project will help us meet clear local demand for nature‑based learning and will equip residents with the skills to take hopeful, practical environmental action. We’re grateful to the Mayor of London’s Green Roots Fund and The Tree Council for enabling us to bring more trees, more learning and more climate resilience to Barking & Dagenham.”
The funding will also enable the farm to re-cover some of its polytunnels to protect crops and capture rainwater to irrigate the farm. This will significantly improve drought resilience in one of the UK’s driest regions and demonstrate sustainable water management for urban growers.
The Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, Mete Coban MBE, said: “Through the Mayor’s Green Roots Fund this project at Dagenham Farm is helping communities come together to boost biodiversity, plant over 1,000 new trees and make their neighbourhoods greener to withstand extreme weather. By empowering local communities with new skills such as growing their own food, and improving access green spaces, it will deliver real benefits for both people and nature in Barking & Dagenham. We’re proud to support projects like this that support communities to take positive environmental action, whilst tackling inequalities. The benefits of nature should be for everyone and I am committed to making this the reality as we build greener, healthier and more resilient London for everyone.”
Meeting clear local demand
The 2023 Barking & Dagenham Good Food Plan found that 85% of residents want more local food-growing spaces, activities and training, yet only 11% feel they can easily access sustainable or planet‑friendly food. The borough also faces some of the highest childhood obesity rates in London, reflecting deep inequalities in access to healthy food and outdoor activity.
Dagenham Farm offers a rare, thriving green space where residents can see positive, practical responses to climate challenges from rainwater conservation and resource‑efficient organic growing to pollution reduction and carbon capture through tree planting.
The farm’s previous schools programmes have shown the power of this approach: over 95% of pupils reported learning more about growing plants and caring for nature, and teachers describe the farm as “irreplaceable,” noting that children who struggle in classroom settings often thrive in its hands‑on environment.
