Community gardening projects are growing! Increasingly people a drawn in by the benefits that they offer - pride in growing your own food, getting to know your neighbours and neighbourhood better, opportunities for community meals, improved mental and physical health, to name a few.
Sadly Tullibody Healthy Living (THL) closed its doors in 2018, although the community garden project remains open. THL was a community-led health project where tackling health inequalities was at the heart of what it did. Set up in 2003, it was based in a small ex-mining community in Clackmannanshire.
Read ‘Tullibody Healthy Living – community engagement at its heart’ here
This project which has now closed ran in disadvantaged areas of Angus, focusing on food and health, particularly for women of childbearing age, pregnant women and the under-fives. It had Healthy Start cafés and community gardening and cooking projects.
Read ‘Healthy Happy Communities – food projects for young families’ here
Stepping Out is a voluntary organisation based in the North Berwick Community Centre. The aim of the organisation is to provide people with mental health problems (mostly severe and enduring) with an opportunity to participate in various food-based activities.
Read ‘Stepping Out – eating and growing food together’ here
Granton Community Gardeners – community development in action
How a community gardening project started from a conversation between neighbours about a small piece of unused land and has grown into a local charity hosting regular community meals and events, group gardening sessions and tuition, and a number of thriving connected projects including a bakery, a chicken co-operative, and a free-shop.
Read ‘Granton Community Gardeners – community development in action’ here