TWENTY-SEVEN years ago, a dedicated and visionary group of Brunswick residents banded together to transform the local rubbish tip into an oasis of sustainable farming.
They named the site CERES, after the Roman goddess of agriculture, and she must have been watching with a felicitous eye - today CERES is the most visited environmental park in Australia.
So successful is the CERES model, with its organic farm and market gardens, mushroom, egg and honey production, aquaponic systems, cafe, shop and fruit and vegetable market, that every year the non-profit organisation fields a dozen or so inquiries from community groups in Australia and from overseas wanting to know how to set up a similar scheme.
"People come here and go, 'we want a CERES', but the thing is you don't very often find old quarries or rubbish tips of nine acres [3.6 hectares] in the inner city with an understanding community around them," CERES' organic farm manager Chris Ennis said yesterday.
The good news - for city workers in any case - is that CERES has received $620,000 in Federal Government funding to establish a new warehouse and food hub and to distribute organic produce to those who may not have ready access to it.
The funding will allow CERES to employ 13 people who will pack and deliver organic fruit, vegetables and other produce to 100 workplaces in the central business district.
The money comes from the Rudd Government's $650 million jobs fund, part of its economic stimulus plan.
"The idea is that there are so many busy people working 50 or 60 hours per week in the city who don't have the time to shop for healthy, fresh food and so they're eating takeaway and they're not feeding themselves well," he said.
"But they want to, and they want to support local growers.
"Our idea is to be able to take the produce to people who work together.
"We deliver it to the workplace, and either they split it up at the workplace or we pack it into easy take-home bags for them."
All that is needed to get involved is a group of 15 or 20 colleagues who agree to be a buying group and receive weekly food deliveries from CERES.
The concept has already been tested with 14 buying groups, or co-ops, in the City of Moreland, and with the National Australia Bank in Bourke Street.
Importantly, the workplace co-op scheme cuts down on food miles and greenhouse gases.
Instead of thousands of individuals driving to their individual food outlet, the market comes to them - and the food they buy has been produced at CERES, or sourced from local organic farmers.
"That's what CERES is about, we can't change the world ourselves but we can demonstrate strategies," Mr Ennis said.
* For information on getting involved, email co-ops@ceres.org.au
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