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Dear Heaven Maker:
Imagine you’re living in London, England in a rented apartment. You’d love to grow some fresh fruits and vegetables to eat but there’s nowhere to do that in your apartment or in your building. At the same time, there are people living in London who have a home with a garden.
What would happen if you brought those two kinds of people together?
That’s the Heaven on Earth idea behind AllotMe.
Here’s two write-ups about them.
The first is from Trend-Watching and the second from AllotMe’s website.
Love,
Martin
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Platform connects garden owners with would-be vegetable growers
• In London, finding a space to grow food is almost as hard as finding an affordable place to live. Allotments — those small rented gardens not attached to a home — have long waiting lists that only grew longer as people sought out green spaces during lockdowns. Which is why Belfast, Ireland, native Conor Gallagher decided to tap into another source: homeowners willing to rent out (part of) their garden.
Like an Airbnb for vegetable patches, London-based AllotMe makes it easier for the average person to access space for growing their own fruit and vegetables. Homeowners set a fee of at least 5 British Pounds per month, of which AllotMe takes a small cut.
You can listen to AllotMe founder Connor Gallagher describing his idea in more detail here.
• At AllotMe, we want it to be easy for anyone to have access to a sustainable way to source their food. Through research and development projects, we search for solutions to the growing issue in our cities of food resourcing.
By 2050, it is estimated that 70% of the Earth’s population will be living in cities, which is why we believe in the importance of having sustainable infrastructure in place to feed the growing population.
Our first instinct lead us to the creation of a digital platform to help more people to grow their own food in the city. We’ll pair local residents with available space and gardens in their area. In London, less than 40% of us have their own private garden space but still want the opportunity to eat healthier and more sustainably from our own patch. At AllotMe, we want finding a vegetable patch to be as easy as ordering a taxi or booking an Airbnb.
Martin Rutte
