Today Amanda speaks with Deb Bogenhuber, ecologist, slow food proponent and co-founder and Executive Officer of Food Next Door Co-op and Out Of The Box.As a multi-stakeholder enterprise, the group engages of new migrant farmers, consumers and volunteers.Committed to nourishing its people as much as the land, Deb says the group keeps up engagement by focusing on communication, listening, and giving decision-making agency to members.Key conversation points:Principles of fairness for growers
Building community: A social enterprise that supports new migrant partners
Improving the environment: using organic and regenerative practices that focused on building soil health
Food Next Door started life with a need to connect people in community with local food
Working with private landholders to grow food on underutilised land
Two-way learning approach
The multi-stakeholder co-operative model
How to keep members engaged
Importance of communication
Spend some time on deep relationships: your work can fall over is you lose relationships
Building a culture of caring: What to do with difficult personalities
What is short terms and long term success?
Short terms success: Meeting funding requirements
Out of The Box challenge: Meeting the sudden increase in demand
Longer term goals: To see more local food organisations adopt the model
The incredibly challenging nature of building a multi-stakeholder social enterprise.
The Community Farm
The Community Water Bank
Getting support and advice from other multi-stakeholder operations
Seeing the impact and joy in the community was a surprise! it turned out to be the most important part!

Resources https://farmingtogether.com.au/community-supporting-agriculture-agriculture-building-community/ (Watch Farming Together’s Out of the Box Solutions Webinar with Deborah Bogenhuber and Debrah Novak)https://farmingtogether.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Food-Next-Door-Coop-Who-We-Are-Flyer-A4-Page-1.pdf (Download the Food Next Door – Who We Are Flyer, page 1)https://farmingtogether.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Food-Next-Door-Coop-Who-We-Are-Flyer-A4-Page-2.pdf (Download the Food Next Door – Who We Are Flyer, page 2)https://www.foodnextdoor.org.au/ (Visit the Food Next Door website)https://outoftheboxsunraysia.com.au/ (Visit the Out Of The Box Sunraysia website)https://www.facebook.com/foodnextdoorcoop (Like Food Next Door on Facebook)https://farmingtogether.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Farming-Together-Case-Study-Food-Next-Door-Coop.pdf (Download the Food Next Door Case Study)https://www.mcwb.org.au/ (Mildura Community Water bank)