Who we are and what we do

Discover how OrganicLea is run, its ethos and the vision its members work towards.

We are a workers’ co-operative

OrganicLea operates with a workers’ co-operative at its core. This is a form of business where the people working at the organisation own and manage it together without separate managers, bosses or shareholders. All of our member-workers have a say in decisions and share responsibility for Organiclea’s day-to-day operation.

Members earn a modest income in a flat pay structure, enjoying the strong sense of community and nurture and the opportunity to have autonomy and flexibility in our work. We hold the  responsibility for stewarding OrganicLea and are privileged to be doing meaningful and rewarding work that helps people and the environment in very real and direct ways.

As a not-for-profit enterprise, OrganicLea reinvests any surplus revenue back into the organisation or uses it to support other like-minded co-ops and community groups.

We are members of workers.coop and Co-operatives UK, where you can find out more about co-ops and get help to start one.

The values we share

Organiclea grows and distributes food locally, inspiring and supporting others to do the same, to shape a better food system that cares for people and planet. We come together with kindness, respect and a commitment to ‘doing it together’ – organising ourselves to do the work rather than waiting for others to lead the way, and always putting life before profit. We take pride in our authenticity and we actively hope for and act for change, believing that the structures of the world can be different and that inequality, injustice and environmental destruction are not inevitable.

Our vision

OrganicLea members envision a world that fosters equality and co-operation, and one that enables everyone to have a real say in their work and lives.

Our vision is of a socially and environmentally just food system, where the means of production and distribution, including access to land, seed and water, are democratically owned and controlled.

We are working to build skills, culture and just production and trading systems that provide a fair income to food producers. These should guarantee the rights of communities to access healthy and nutritious food grown in an organic or agroecological way. We want to see a food system based on the principles of food sovereignty, and part of a wider solidarity economy.

Find out more about our how we are transforming the food system.

Our aims

As workers’ co-operative members, we have set ourselves these aims:

1. Work to improve the local food economy:  increase access to local organic/ agroecological food.
2. Work with People: Reconnect people with nature and each other through local organic/agroecological food growing;
3. Work with Nature: Increase biodiversity, reduce destruction of the natural environment, and mitigate against climate change, through local organic/ agroecological food growing.
4. Work cooperatively: Show the world that cooperation, and cooperatives, can work well, and play an important role in the Solidarity Economy. Create democratic and meaningful livelihoods for our members
5. Work for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: Acknowledge, challenge and address structural oppressions that exist in the human world and within the co-op itself. These include class, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism. Work towards making our cooperative representative of our local community.
6. Work for a Better World! Achieve Aims 1 – 5 beyond our local community. By working with organisations and networks to promote food sovereignty, the cooperative movement and the solidarity economy at a regional, national and global level.

OrganicLea is a Garden of Sanctuary

We are incredibly proud to have been awarded Garden of Sanctuary status. It’s recognition that our organisation and Hawkwood Nursery is welcoming for everyone.

This includes people who came to the UK as refugees or are seeking asylum. OrganicLea is somewhere that everyone – the workers’ co-operative members, volunteers and the wider community – can learn what it’s like to seek sanctuary. We come together to create a safe space where people feel valued. No one is left out and everyone is encouraged to join in with the joy of growing, distributing and preparing food.

Bringing together people and plants

Our Hawkwood Nursery is a welcoming place where volunteers get involved on Tuesday afternoons, Wednesdays and Fridays. The workers’ co-operative members also run traineeships, volunteer placements and short courses.

OrganicLea holds the Green Care Quality mark, which shows that it’s a safe, professional organisation, which looks after the people in its care.

Across the year we hold several Open Days – just drop in and explore! We also host special events and seasonal plant sales.

Hawkwood has a classroom, kitchen, glasshouses, open fields, scrubland and woodland edges. There’s plenty of space to grow a wide variety of fruit, vegetables and herbs using organic and permaculture methods.

Watch a short film about OrganicLea

Back in 2022, the team behind Power Station spent the day with us and made a wonderful film about OrganicLea. It explores our history, ethos, and what we give back to the local community and beyond.