England’s first community-owned farm wins national photography competition
A community-owned farm in Shropshire is celebrating after topping a public vote to become the winner of a national photography competition for social enterprise. The result of the online poll was announced last night (30 November) at a special event held at the social enterprise Lumen, in London.
The ‘Social Vision: business at its best’ competition set out to find images that show the unique and transformative work of social enterprise - businesses trading for social and environmental purposes.
Now in its third year, the photography competition was for the first time jointly run by Triodos Bank and the Social Enterprise Coalition in association with Social Enterprise Magazine and the regional social enterprise networks of England.
Fordhall Community Land Initiative (FCLI) was founded by siblings Ben and Charlotte Hollins in 2006 in order to save their father’s farm on the outskirts of Market Drayton from private developers. With the support of over 8,000 shareholders from across the UK and around the world FCLI were able to purchase the farm making it the first of its kind in England.
Boasting an organic farm shop and trail, Fordhall also offer volunteering opportunities and educational visits in order to reconnect the local and wider community to food and farming. Their winning snap shows a group of visitors enjoying a tractor ride through the Shropshire countryside during one of the farm’s public open days.
On winning the West Midlands regional heat of the competition, Fordhall was pitted against ten other social enterprises from every region of England along with Scotland and Wales to win the UK prize. The public were invited to vote online for their favourite finalist and Fordhall emerged as the winner after securing the biggest share of the nearly 2,000 votes cast.
Peter Holbrook, CEO of the Social Enterprise Coalition said:
“Congratulations to Fordhall Community Land Initiative on their success – the standard of entries was very high this year making their win all the more impressive. Their story is a great example of what individuals can achieve by coming together to work for a common aim and, like all social enterprises, people and planet lie at the heart of what they do.”
Charles Middleton, Managing Director of Triodos bank said:
“We’re delighted by the superb standard of photography in this year’s competition, which really captures the spirit of a better approach to business. Our congratulations go to Fordhall Community Land Initiative for their fantastic photo which really does highlight the strengths of social enterprise. Social enterprise has so much to offer today’s society and economy and it’s vital that we continue to support this growing sector.”
Charlotte Hollins, Project Manager at Fordhall Farm said:
"Winning the Social Vision competition is a great honour. Fordhall has come a long way over the last five years and we are enjoying every bit of the journey. It is a wonderful feeling to see how much children and families get out of experiencing the farm - so much more than we ever imagined. Social enterprise really is a wonderful business to be in. A big, big thank you to all our shareholders, volunteers and supporters who voted for us."
The winning photo will be on display alongside the other finalists as part of a free exhibition at Lumen in Tavistock Square, London until 7 January 2011.