CSA Member survey 2024

People

• 78 responses from CSAs and starter CSAs
• 55 are trading and 23 are not yet trading
• 70 already have land and 8 are looking
• On average CSAs provided 66 shares, or the equivalent of food for 66 households
• 29% of CSAs have a waiting list
• The CSAs hire on average 1.33 FTEs members of staff

Land and food

• The average size of land is 3.19 hectares
• Most produce vegetables (96%), then salads (84%), then herbs (73%)
• 51% produce soft fruit, 42% top fruit, 7% nuts and 1 fuel

Food access

• 65% of responding CSAs donate food to food banks or similar
• 55% offer workshares so people can volunteer their time in return for fresh fruit and veg

Resilience and weather

• 74% of respondents were affected by adverse weather conditions in the last year
• 89% of respondents said they felt robust and able to adapt to unexpected changes
• When asked “How economically resilient do you feel?” (e.g. if we have a bad year we’ll survive) where one is not at all and five is completely, on average the CSAs were at 2.77
• In response to the statement “How socially resilient do you feel?” (e.g. we feel well supported by our members and community, & if we were in need people would help us) CSAs said on average 3.54
• And when asked “How environmentally resilient do you feel?” (e.g. we feel we can adapt to changing climate and weather and are protecting maintaining and increasing biodiversity etc) the CSAs on average said 3.52

Wellbeing

When asked ‘Overall, to what extent do you feel that the things you do in your life are worthwhile?’ with 1 being not at all and 5 completely, CSA’s answered on average 4.22. The ONS average to this question is 3.55.

Achievements

“Amazing support and feedback from our members and volunteers.”

“Going up to 60 box’s, building two new 27m polytunnels”

“Impossible to say! Making people happier, feeding people good food, securing funding to keep us going…so many things!”

“Increasing to 50 shares (from 20) and taking them all through the year, as well as some wonderful community events, camp-outs and open days.”

“Producing food in northern Scotland for 40 weeks of the year with no support from Local authority or Scottish government”

Concerns

“Extreme weather events and effects of climate change on growing cycle”

“Finances – we rely on a national lottery grant and keep hearing the competition is getting fiercer. We have to keep thinking of new exciting ideas to appeal to grant funders, but it’s hard to commit to new ideas when we don’t know if we can cover basic expenses”

“Having enough time to be there and keep up. Creating a viable business that can pay  growers eventually.”

“Making the budget balance. Membership is falling due to cost of living crisis whilst wages are increasing (we’re committed to paying Real Living Wage) so a balanced budget will be a challenge. Linked to this is affordable housing for our growers who we will struggle to keep if they can’t afford to live in Stroud.”