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We're just getting started
FungALL is building a network of neighbourhood mushroom farms where food, skills and community come together.
Our next chapter puts people involved in the justice system at the heart of this model. Working with Probation Services, Community Payback and local partners, we create practical spaces where justice involved people can grow mushrooms, cook food, develop skills and build confidence.
It’s about more than what we grow or make. It’s about creating routine, purpose and positive connections, effectively helping people build skills, strengthen relationships and find a stronger sense of belonging in their community..
We want to grow this model across Manchester and beyond, creating more opportunities for people to learn through doing, contribute to their communities and take positive next steps, while producing nutritious food for people experiencing food insecurity and isolation.
Our Story
FungALL grew from a simple idea: what if the things our city throws away could help feed it?
It began when our founder, Norton, started growing mushrooms in his bedroom as part of a university project exploring how people might respond if food systems failed. The idea quickly grew, with Tom, Nicole, volunteers and community partners helping turn an experiment into a network of community mushroom growing spaces across South Manchester.
Today, we use local by-products such as spent coffee grounds and brewers’ grain to grow fresh mushrooms. But as FungALL has grown, so has our understanding of what these spaces can create. What started as a way of exploring waste, food and resilience has become a practical way to bring people together, share skills and create opportunities to contribute to something meaningful.
That has led to an increasing focus on people involved in the justice system. Through our growing and cooking activities, our justice-involved participants can learn cultivation, food preparation, hospitality and circular economy skills, while contributing to something that directly benefits their community. The mushrooms they help grow are used in community meals and shared through local food networks.
Waste becomes food. Practical work becomes skills. And contribution creates connection.
Our Team
Director
Norton Robinson
Director
Thomas Cockroft
Director
Nicole Hope
Supporting people through practical activity:
People involved in the justice system are increasingly at the heart of our work. Through partnerships with Probation Services and Community Payback, participants take part in meaningful, hands-on activity alongside our wider community work.
Participants grow mushrooms from local by-products, prepare food and gain practical experience in cultivation, cooking, hospitality and circular food production.
Our approach is supportive, practical and non-judgemental, giving people the space to learn at their own pace, build confidence and experience being valued for what they contribute.
Where appropriate, involvement can continue beyond a placement through volunteering, further learning, community activity and pathways towards paid work.
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Learning & Skills
We are AQA registered and are developing recognised learning opportunities in circular mushroom cultivation and community food production, helping participants turn practical experience into skills they can carry forward.
Food, community and circularity:
At the heart of FungALL is a simple idea: growing food can grow much more than food. It can create opportunities to learn, contribute, connect and make a positive difference in the community.
Alongside our justice-focused work, we continue to run community growing and cooking activities, sharing the food we produce through local community meals, community fridges and partner food organisations.
These activities help bring people together around food, create welcoming spaces to learn practical skills, and make sure what we grow is shared directly with communities across Manchester.
Impacts
Our impact travels in a circle: local by-products become food, practical work becomes skills, and that food goes back into the communities around us.
For people involved in the justice system, FungALL provides meaningful hands-on experience in mushroom cultivation, cooking and hospitality, alongside opportunities to build confidence, routine, recognised skills and positive community connections.
For local communities, the mushrooms and meals produced through the programme help support people experiencing food insecurity, while wider workshops create opportunities for people to learn, cook and grow together.
This year we will start producing 100kg of mushrooms each month,supporting us to prepare up to 400 free community meals. (A work in progress)
About FungALL
Founded in 2023, FungALL is a Manchester-based community interest company using neighbourhood mushroom farming to connect practical skills, community contribution and access to good food.
We grow mushrooms to create opportunities for people to learn, contribute and feel connected to their community, while helping tackle food insecurity.
Our growing and cooking activities bring people together around something tangible: growing food, making use of local resources, and sharing what we produce with people experiencing food insecurity, isolation and disadvantage.
This creates a direct connection between participation and community benefit. People can build practical skills, develop confidence and establish positive routines, while seeing the tangible impact of their contribution in their own neighbourhood.