Hinterland West Galway is a community-rooted initiativeproject working to transform how food is grown, shared, governed, and valued, placing equityfairness, ecological regenerationmaking something new again, and food citizenship at its corecentre. We promote food system transformation by weaving together research, on-the-ground action, creative expression, and education to build resilientstrong, inclusive food systems.
Since its founding, Hinterland has created pathwaysways to participate in the food system through growing supports, sharing, learning, and collective imagination. Their work spanscovers a Pilot rooftop garden for Galway City Partnership, farm-to-community supply chainshow food gets from farmer to shops and food events, food system mapping, and policy engagement, all designed to bridge urban and rural communities and ensure that a resilient and inclusive food system is accessible to all.
Where?
Galway City
Who started this action?
Claire Davey, Enda McEvoy and Fergal Anderson
Some quick facts about the project
Who is involved?
Local farms, community members and citizens, local development organisations, thought leaders, food activists.
Community members and citizens, especially those interested in food growing, food preparation and preservation.
Employers interested in providing locally made food products to employees.
Some of Hinterland West’s projects include:
Workshops (seasonal workshops, farm feasts, land connection, artful engagements collecting local food knowledge, public installations and mapping projects that show Galway’s food future)
Urban Rooftop garden – This pilot project is in one of Galway’s most busy city areas. It gives people a natural space and an example for how to live sustainably in a built-up area. Hinterland West worked with Galway City Partnership and City Bin Company, to make sure all compost used for the rooftop garden was from brown bin collections in the city. The project is a community resource, it improves biodiversityanimals and nature , grows local food, and gives opportunities for shared learning.
Food System Mapping Project – Hinterland is actively mapping Galway’s food system to identify local growers, food initiatives, distribution pathways, and access points. This creates the first visual “Food Web” of Galway, helping communities, policymakerspeople who make rules about something - for example the government, or a county or city council, and farmers understand how food moves from land to table.
Highlights Click toggle ⊕ to see these
The idea for the project came from seeing how different food and sustainability challenges were connected. These included climate change, pressures on farming, inequality in access to food, a lack of connection between people and how food is grown and made.
The group set up the ‘FarmLift’ programme: This connects local farms with work-places, so that a business could arrange to get boxes of fresh, local food for their workers.
Workshops on cooking, preserving, and food skills were also included.
The project also runs community meet-ups with on-the-farm learning sessions (growing, preservation, agro-ecologicalways of farming that are careful not to damage nature). They can also have community conversations around food justice and sustainability.
Hinterland also runs a ‘Knowledge Hub’. Here, they carry out research which includes mapping the local food system (production → distribution → consumption). This helps show areas where a more just and sustainable food futures can be created.
Sustainable farms are also helped by having direct contacts with local people.
Why this matters
This project tackles the problem of hunger and issues from how food is grown and sold in a very real and thoughtful way. It combines practical actions (e.g. FarmLift, workshops) with research and mapping. It changes understanding of local food systems. It centres community, place, and inclusion: particularly connecting people to land, to local food, and helping those most affected by food insecurity.
It does community-based research, and uses new ways of doing things to make a just, inclusive and sustainable food future.
Hinterland answers many challenges: climate, agriculture, access to food, and belonging. It does this by cultivating holisticlooks at the whole of the problem you're trying to solve not just a part of it , examples of change that are locally based. It works along the whole food chain: from growing, through food processing to distribution to consumption.
SDG Alignment & Keywords Click toggle ⊕ to see these
- SDG 2: Zero Hunger,
- SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being;
- SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth,
- SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities,
- SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities;
- SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
Keywords: Climate Action; Community development; Biodiversity; Circularity; Environmental and sustainability education, Galway.
Find Out More about the project
Website: HinterlandWest
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hinterlandgalway/
Contact: info@hinterlandwest.ie
The Activists’ Take Away
HinterlandWest was set up by three people as a CLGa Company Limited by Guarantee in one where the owners – usually a community – don’t make profits, but they also can’t lose any money over the amount that they put in to set it up.
People think that it is quite hard to set up a community organisation. Listen to Avril and Dara from the Aran Islands Energy Co-operative about how they did it and learn how you could do the same.
The story of a sustainable energy co-op in Galway
Listen on…
Resources from Climate Connected that you can use to do follow this example in your area
Visit our library of community stories
Search Community Stories By Map
