ON THE VINE
LANEWAY FOOD IS FREE
Lou Ridsdale has turned her hobby of gardening and self-sufficiency into a not-for-profit: Food Is Free. This new aspect of her life began in 2014, when Ridsdale began putting the surplus vegetables she’d grown on display in the laneway adjoining her rental property, so passersby could take what they needed. Very soon, her modest Ballarat initiative gained traction, thanks in part to her publicity nous and enthusiastic signage, but also through word of mouth. Other people dropped off their produce and the volunteers started trickling in.
The initiative is part of a global movement. The US version of Food is Free started in Austin,Texas, in 2012, through community gardens in public spaces. Within two years, the idea had spread to 200 cities around the world, over 26 countries.
“Nine months into us setting up in Ballarat there were at least 50 that had popped up around the country, but around winter they started shutting down because it becomes trickier,” Ridsdale says. “You have to have that perfect storm of luring people to the site, but also getting them to participate. It doesn’t have to be a regular thing,” she says. “You could even leave a box of apples at a bus shelter.”
“Ballarat has generational poverty and pressure in low
