IT is a food revolution that could be about to take off in one Hampshire city.

Green activists have begun moves to get communities to grow their own food using public spaces across Winchester.

Winchester Action on Climate Change (WinACC) surveyed 1,700 of its members, with more than 90 per cent saying they would like to see communities out and growing food together in the city.

WinACC chairman Sarah Gooding said: “Growing your own food can be amazing, but it is difficult to get started and many people do not have gardens where they can try it.

“We are looking for great places around the city to get a community garden started and enthusiastic people to join in.”

There is already a community farm in Eastleigh – Highbridge Farm – where stakeholders pay £12 a year to be part of the scheme and are expected to spend ten hours a month working at the farm.

It has been a huge success and over the past four years has accumulated more than 150 members who get together to produce their own cheap food.

Project leader Richard Saunders said: “People come here for the communal aspect and the community spirit. People enjoy being involved in something different from their nine-to-five work.

“They like doing something constructive and being in the fresh air.”

But working the land is hard graft, and the novelty of spending a cold Saturday morning digging out potatoes from the mud must soon wear thin.

Susie Phillips, WinACC’s climate action co-ordinator, believes that is why community gardening is such a good idea.

“If it’s just you going down to the allotment, you have to be a certain type of person to keep going through the winter,” she said.

The group has already identified a potential site near Nuns Walk, Winchester.

“There is a rough patch of ground there which Winchester City Council has mentioned to us in the past, but that’s still very much in the early stages.

“We’re also keen to talk to people in Stanmore because there are quite a few people with flats who do not have gardens and it would be great for them,” she said.

In April, WinACC will host a talk by Mary Clear, who will share her experience of setting up Incredible Edible, a project to get the entire town of Todmorden, in West Yorkshire, to grow its own food.

The talk will take place on Saturday, April 5, at 10am, in St Lawrence Parish Church Hall, Colebrook Street.

Find out more by contacting Susie on susie.phillips@winacc.org.uk, or logging on to the website winacc.org.uk.