East Dunbartonshire Food Growing Strategy

Over recent years the popularity of growing our own food has increased. Many people are attracted by the health benefits associated with growing your own fruit and vegetables and potential reductions in food bills from locally grown produce as well as contributions to reducing their carbon footprint by reducing the distance their food has to travel. 

In response to the requirements of Section 9 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, East Dunbartonshire is preparing a Food Growing Strategy which will help to raise awareness of local food growing opportunities and give communities the chance to grow their own food and plants.

The Food Growing Strategy will improve access to affordable, healthy, sustainable food by increasing opportunities for people in East Dunbartonshire to ‘grow-your-own’ (‘GYO’). The Strategy will outline the mechanisms needed to build an engaged, empowered and knowledgeable network of local growers over the next 5 years. By taking a balanced and considered approach, the Strategy will aim to encourage and sustain both new and existing growing spaces, helping to fulfil food growing aspirations and meet local needs.

The Strategy has been in development since the beginning of 2017; initially with a series of early public engagement events in May 2017, followed by a public consultation on the draft Strategy in spring 2019. The subsequent approval of a final Food Growing Strategy was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and Strategy development was restarted in 2025. The finalised Strategy will reflect the input gathered through the previous extensive consultation and engagement activities, as well as findings from site assessments, waiting list demand data and policy considerations.

The Strategy’s vision, aims and objectives will take into account local priorities and the views of our communities, gathered through early engagement exercises and consultation on the draft Food Growing Strategy. The vision and aims of the Strategy are set out in the figure below. The objectives are still being finalised following feedback from the draft Strategy consultation and will be detailed in the finalised Food Growing Strategy.

An engagement exercise is taking place to inform the finalised version of the Food Growing Strategy. The Strategy is currently being updated to reflect current food growing demand, along with responses received following the consultation on the draft Strategy in 2019. We are looking for your feedback: do you think that the proposed changes to be included in the final Food Growing Strategy adequately reflect and respond to the views shared on the draft Strategy?

View a summary of the Food Growing Strategy

View the proposed changes to the final Food Growing Strategy

All responses will be taken into consideration to update the final Food Growing Strategy.

You can get involved at a drop-in session:

If you cannot attend a drop-in session, you can still share your views via the online survey below.

For further information about food growing and the Food Growing Strategy please email greenspace@eastdunbarton.gov.uk.