Almost 50 new community plots have been made available to local residents at the St Luke’s Centre as part of the council’s Edible Islington programme.
By utilising the existing car park, the EC1 site now boasts 72 growing spaces – almost three times the number available ahead of the Edible Islington launch.
The Edible Islington programme aims to help residents adopt a greener lifestyle while also creating a sense of community.
The £1 million scheme will support community food-growing projects on estates, in schools, on adventure playgrounds, in community gardens – in fact, anywhere food can be grown.
The recent St Luke’s upgrade was made possible with the centre’s £10,000 slice of Islington Council funding.
Cllr Ruth Polling, Islington Council’s Executive Member for Leisure and Equalities, who attended the site launch this week (Wednesday, August 12), said: “Growing your own food is a great chance to get active and is also a wonderful way of bringing community together to work on something from which everyone can benefit.
“St Luke’s has long been a great supporter of gardening projects and I am pleased the council has been able to fund this expansion.”
To encourage involvement, Edible Islington grants will be offered to community groups for food growing projects while a number of courses, workshops and events will be run throughout the year.
The programme is being run in partnership with Groundwork London, the St Luke’s Centre and Capital Growth.
For more information on the Edible Islington programme or to find out more about the food-growing grants, please visit www.islington.gov.uk/edibleislington or contact Sandra Hoisz on sandra.hoisz@groundwork.org.uk or 020 7239 1389.
Page Last Updated: 13 August 2009