We have a variety of very talented staff at the farm with a wide range of skills. Some work part-time, some full-time and some are self employed. Here’s a little bit about them.
Alison Belshaw – Project Director
“The Community Farm is such an exciting project for me – a venture trying to make a real difference.” Alison is a co-ordinator, facilitator and project manager and has worked on environmental and sustainability projects for most of her working life. Freelance since 2005 and specialising in local sustainable food projects, Alison also works for Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, supporting new and existing food co-ops in the South West. In 2010 Alison designed and delivered sustainable food training for the National Trust for their Eat into Green Living Project and prior to this, worked for local government.
Phil Haughton – Operations Director
Phil first became a member of The Soil Association at 14 years old; this was the beginning of a life long involvement in organic food and farming. Experience has come from 5 years farming in Scotland, 5 years working on a city farm with education at its heart and 25 years retailing, wholesaling, growing and delivering organic food with a commitment to sustainability and community throughout. The award winning Better Food Company started life in 1992 and is a pioneering and successful organic food business with operations covering retail, a box scheme and wholesale. With thirty five years of working, living and breathing organic food, farming and community, and directing business operations Phil sees The Community Farm as an opportunity to help build new models for food and farming with people at the centre.
Clare Groom – Volunteer Co-ordinator
Clare is a freelance marketing and communications specialist. She has worked as Marketing Manager for the Centre for Alternative Technology’s Visitor Centre and for a number of educational organisations. Over the years Clare has participated in a range of voluntary activities. She was an active member of the London Cycling Campaign. She volunteered for CEDUAM, an environmental education centre in Mexico, and participated in a teaching and building project with Save the Children in Honduras. More recently she has written articles for Bristol’s Ecojam website.
Emily Burstow – Senior Administrator
Shelda Katyoka – Book-keeper
The Field Team
Andy Dibben – Farm Manager
Andy’s first experience of agriculture was as a child on family sheep farm in Hampshire, after an extended misspent youth in Bristol he ended up living in a converted horse lorry moving from farm to farm carrying out various agricultural jobs around the South West of England including orchard picking, potato harvesting, shepherding, tree planting and mushroom harvesting. He eventually ended up working as a Coppice Worker and Charcoal Burner in the Aldershot area. It was here that his wife Sarah and he had their first child, Connor. They lasted a year in the truck with a child before the lure of hot running water and a bath tempted them in to more permanent accommodation just in time for the arrival of their second son, Archie.
The financial demands of fatherhood had outstripped Andy’s Woodsman’s wage so he sought more gainful employment as the Farm Manager of a Care Farm on the Mendips in Somerset catering for adults with autism. He ran Rare Breed Cattle, Sheep and Pigs as well as a few more unusual animals such as Water Buffalo, Llamas and Rheas (small ostrich). He then did shepherding work for a while before embarking on his vegetable growing career which started at Wrington Greens in Somerset, followed by The Better Food Company which morphed into The Community Farm. Which brings him up to date and very happy with where he is, where he’s been and excited about what the future might hold.
Atanas Sharkov – Field Worker
Atanas is from Plodiv in Bulgaria. He has lived in England for the past seven years. He came here for his University degree in Agrarian Economics. He has worked for the Better Food Company organic growing at Wrington for five years and then at The Community Farm. He hopes one day to take the great experience he has had with organic farming in the UK back to Bulgaria with his wife and his son.
John English – Organic Apprentice
John first came to The Community Farm for a volunteer day in May 2010 and was so inspired by the people and the place he kept coming back! In April 2011 he joined the staff full-time as the seasonal worker and to manage the volunteer groups at the field. John is now the Farm’s organic apprentice. His original training was as a metallurgist and aeronautical engineer and he had a 20 year career in the Civil Service as a project manager in military aircraft procurement and then as the leader of a management consultancy team, working on organisational change. Disillusioned by an office-bound life and the corporate treadmill, he took a sabbatical break to Canada to train as a ski instructor, which made him realise he couldn’t continue in a life that kept him indoors. Looking for a way to reconnect with the land and the local community, he found inspiration in the Transition movement and in projects like the Farm as a path to a more nourishing way to live that engages the head, the heart and the hands. John’s a Bristol resident and loves the amazing people, food and music in the city, but his dream is one day to live on his own bit of land in the rural West Country where he can grow food and make cider.
The Wholesale and Box Team
Laurence Guy – Wholesale Manager
Laurence has worked for over five years in the organic sector, initially working for Abel and Cole in South London before taking over the Management of the Wholesale and Box Scheme operation of the Better Food Company and now the Community Farm. He loves seeing how the seasons develop and working with a dedicated, passionate and hard working team. He believes that the Community Farm really is larger than the sum of its parts and has a real opportunity to not only deliver fantastic organic produce but also to inspire generations of people to appreciate where their food is grown
Laura Colebrooke – Customer Service Adviser
Laura has always been passionate about food and believes that what we eat can change the world. That’s why she’s really excited to be part of The Community Farm. Her interest in local food led to her completing an MA in the Anthropology of Food in 2009 which offered her the opportunity to work closely with a local CSA scheme. Since then she has worked at a small environmental charity where she ran a bike recycling project which allowed her to indulge her other passion – bikes! She has also had roles in retail and research as well as spending some time running her own vegan cake company and as part of a small collective putting on gigs. Before coming to the Farm, Laura was Customer Services Manager at Planet Organic and she is really looking forward to escaping London and getting stuck in to the delights of the West Country where she grew up.
Ian Sumpter – Wholesale and Box supervisor
Ian has spent most of his career working within the organic sector. He has wide ranging experience with both crop and livestock production. He has moved across the Severn to join our project after managing a 50 acre mixed farm in Ceredigion and is looking forward to the new opportunities and challenges this new role will bring.
Stevie Walker – Packer / Driver
Stevie originally started as a relief driver with the Better Food Company over three years ago, where he was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and attitude towards organic produce. Over the past few years he has watched and participated in the growth of the wholesale department and box scheme and is very excited at the development of The Community Farm and the vision for an educated, brighter future. Since his involvement he has become increasingly aware of organics, not just as products or service but as a way of life.
Alex Vann – Packer / Driver
Tom joined The Community Farm in 2012. He is involved with both wholesale and customer box deliveries and preparing the boxes at the farm in Chew Magna. Tom has just joined the TA and is a sapper with 302 Commando Engineers inBath. Previously he has worked for Horseworld as a tractor tour driver and came to us from Ikea Bristol where he was a forklift driver in the goodsflow department.
James Gillam – Packer
Tom Custance – Packer / Driver