The mushrooms fuelling fairer communities

“I don’t think there’s a community around that wouldn’t benefit from projects like this.” 

Thomas cockcroft, young gamechanger

Mushroom farms and transforming communities aren’t two things you’d necessarily put together. But Thomas Cockcroft, 25, is leading change through his organisation, FungALL, to improve his community through mushrooms!  

Thomas is using funding from our Young Gamechangers Fund to build a community-led, sustainable mushroom farm in Whalley Range, Manchester. It’s here Thomas and fellow FungALL director, Norton, will educate people about mushrooms, teach them to grow their own, and create access to healthy, sustainable food. They’re growing food locally, in a sustainable way, with the hope to feed as many locals as they can!  

FungALL aims to bring people together while making local urban agriculture accessible to communities around Manchester. Thomas and Norton are now working with young people aged 18-25 who are completing community service, involving them in growing and cooking mushrooms. Through this they’re estimating a yield of over 100kg of mushrooms each month – enough to support 500 community meals.  

As Co-op’s charity, we believe in doing right by communities. We’re strengthening this, by supporting organisations like FungALL to make communities more sustainable, fair, and inclusive. 

We spoke to Thomas to find out more about how our Young Gamechangers Fund is supporting him and his community.  

Co-op Foundation: How did FungALL come about?  

Thomas: The project started four years ago – me and Norton [the other Director of FungALL] lived together while we were at university. Norton was working on a project that visualised a post-apocalyptic worldscape where we re-evolved on mushroom technology. That’s when Norton got interested in mushrooms and how they can benefit our society. This evolved and FungAll CIC came two years later. That’s when I got involved and we started building mushroom farms together. 

CF: What sparked your passion for making positive changes in your community?  

T: In my first year of university, I got involved in Manchester Urban Diggers (MUD) and started building community gardens. That’s when I got really passionate about sustainable urban agriculture. I started to see the benefits of this in the community – in terms of biodiversity and social value, too. I think every community needs it. I don’t think there’s a community around that wouldn’t benefit from projects like this. So, I don’t think it’s about choosing one community over another – I would make the argument that every single community needs it. 

CF: How did you find out about the Young Gamechangers Fund?  

T: We found out about the Young Gamechangers Fund when me and Norton started doing more work with young people – both me and Norton are part-time youth workers with Groundwork Greater Manchester. They got us onto the Young Gamechangers Fund and said if you really want to start making a difference in your organisation with young people, then you should apply for this fund.   

CF: How much funding did you receive?  

T: We were awarded £19,976 and that was honestly the point, for me, I realised that we’ve got something real happening here.  Before, we’d only got smaller chunks of funding – £500, and once we got £5,000, but that doesn’t really go too far.  

When we got this funding, it really kind of took FungALL to the next level. [use pull out quote format] 

CF: What will this funding support you do, that gets you to that next level? 

T: With the funding from the Young Gamechangers Fund we are building a community-led mushroom farm – this will be our flagship model for a community urban mushroom farm. As part of that, we’re going to be running workshops – we’ll be doing sustainable recipe development workshops. We’ll also do some research projects, and we’re going to do a community fridge scheme where we make meals for the community and they can come and collect them as and when with a ‘pay as you feel model’.  

CF: This really does sound incredible – we’re so pleased to be funding work like yours through our Young Gamechangers Fund. You really are building communities of the future!  

T: Absolutely. Community has no definition – everyone can be part of a community and we want to involve absolutely everyone in our project. That being said, we do look to work with young people, refugees, and people experiencing food poverty as our priority. But we want absolutely anyone and everyone involved. 

When we got the funding, we realised that we were able to help all these people on a much larger scale. It feels amazing and really motivating to keep on doing the things we’re doing – especially when we’re seeing the benefits it’s having. 

FungALL has recently started a new project that collects coffee waste from corporate buildings in Manchester to help reduce waste while contributing to growing mushrooms which provide nutritious food to local communities. If you’re Manchester-based and would like to get involved, email info@fungall.org   

Learn more about the impact of our funding in our 2024 Impact Report.

Developed by young people, the Young Gamechangers Fund is funded by the Co-op Foundation, in partnership with Co-op and the #iwill Fund; and delivered by the Global Fund for Children and Restless Development, alongside the Co-op Foundation.