Serving soup fresh from the garden on World Food Day.
The ‘Plant to Plate’ project began in April 2013 and is now in its 25th week. As part of world food day, home grown food was on the menu at Duffryn Community Link today in Newport and served to staff and volunteers.
Funded by Oxfam Cymru and The Co-operative Group, this project ‘Plant to Plate’ was set up in order to develop a new allotment site within the laundry area of Tredegar House in partnership with Duffryn Community Link, the National Trust, and Growing Space.
The project works closely with families engaged through the Oxfam Sustainable Livelihoods Project in Duffryn, and more firmly links planting and growing with healthy food intakes, recipes and food preparation. The main aims of the project is to increase uptake of the Food Co-operative by residents of Duffryn and to promote awareness of growing your own food and the link from ‘Plant to Plate’.
Jane Lewis is Learning Co-ordinator with Duffryn Community Link,
“Growing food and learning about it is such a social event, you can have a cup of coffee and talk to people while you’re planting. We also teach people what they can do after they have successfully grown them too. It’s wonderful to be able to be part of the whole process and share this with others.”
Duffryn Community Link is at the heart of community development and has been actively engaged with the local community for over 10 years. They have grown from a community led group of volunteers to a charity which runs a childcare social enterprise and through it’s dedicated staff works in partnership with many organisations and agencies to deliver services to benefit the lives of local people.
Since the ‘Plant to Plate’ project began in April it has blossomed and all involved have been busy planting and growing a variety of fruit and vegetables in the allotment site. The project has also kept a visual diary on their website showing viewers their developments in their garden on a weekly basis.
“There is never a quiet moment in the allotment, we are always doing something here either picking crops, weeding, planting plants and pots to decorate the allotment area, trying out new recipes with the produce we harvest, or discussing what we need to be planting next. We are currently harvesting runner beans and pumpkins and we have a good selection of herbs and french beans here too. There is always something to do and to learn and our aim here is simple; we want to encourage the local community to enjoy planting, growing and eating fresh food as well
as getting out and meeting new friends and sharing their knowledge and experiences’.
Photo of children by Glenn Edwards.
Children are Kelis Gwyther and Tyrone Probert