Two Projects in Laois awarded grants from the Energia Get Ireland Growing Fund
€75,000 granted to 86 projects across Ireland by ‘Energia Get Ireland Growing’
The winners have been announced in the ‘Energia Get Ireland Growing’ community growing fund created by GIY (Grow It Yourself) in partnership with Energia.
A fund of €75,000 has today been awarded to 86 community food growing projects across the island of Ireland. The teams behind 86 community projects will each receive funds in order to develop their unique projects and ideas further for the benefit of their local community.
The recipients include community groups, schools, NGOs and Not for Profits, community gardens and allotment groups, GIY groups, hospitals, crèches, direct provision centres and men’s sheds all across the country. Each group will be awarded funding ranging from €500 to €2,000 with one group receiving €5,000.
In Laois a GIY and Energia Get Ireland Growing funding award goes to:
Kiln lane Resident’s Association, Mountrath
“We try to sow plants like tomato lettuce carrots and all types of veg and potatoes so we can share with people on the estate. The more we can grow the more that everyone living here can benefit from this good food grown locally.”
Voice of Migrants Ireland, Portlaoise
“Voice of Migrants is an asylum lead group. Our aim is to promote positive mental well being and integration. In 2018 the centre manager allocated us a space to grow vegetables with the residents in the Montague Direct Provision centre. We grew tomatoes, cabbage, beans, mint and aubergine. And this year we would like to expand it.
Our project has a great impact on the residents as it allows them to get out of their rooms and be active. The benefits of this garden are that, it promotes positive mental well-being of the residents in the centre. The garden brings the residents together as they are no activities for the residents in the centre. It is also aimed to help the residents have knowledge on how growing and looking after garden is done in Ireland as it might be done differently from their country of origin.”
Some other projects awarded support funds this year include –
- Waterford Women’s Centre which supports women who experience social, cultural, educational and economic disadvantage through the delivery of community education programmes;
- Mullingar Rehab & Recovery Team who work with people from 18 up to and including people over 65 years, with and severe and enduring mental illness;
- Global Action Plan Community Garden, Ballymun who bring people together of all ages and abilities to promote sustainable, local & organic food production, wellbeing & community engagement;
- Cliftonville Men’s Shed in Belfast who have 20 volunteer gardeners and regularly host youth groups and community events in conjunction with the local community centre and schools;
- Kilmacow Montessori School who educate pre-school children on the importance of growing and looking after your own crops and taking great pleasure in presenting the foods that are hand grown from an organic garden in school.
The project announced as the overall winner and awarded the top prize of €5,000 is The Zero Waste Community Garden in Kildare which is dedicated to growing fruit and vegetables in a sustainable and organic way for gardeners and community residents. They currently have 13 gardeners with vegetable plots, a heritage orchard and 18 other fruit trees. They grow all year round with the aid of their polytunnel. Their project has a massive positive impact in their community by helping to reduce their carbon footprint, reduce family’s expenditure on food and encourage a healthier lifestyle. They have created a space for people of all ages, nationalities and abilities to mix and grow healthy food enabling their community to work closer together.
Commenting at the awards ceremony, GIY’s Head of Community Development and Campaign Ambassador Karen O’Donohoe said, “We are delighted to help each of these community groups to develop their projects and their ideas through Energia Get Ireland Growing. Reading through each of the applications was so heartening, first of all, there were so many of merit and in addition, every single one of these projects has an inclusive approach at its core and they are all committed to encouraging more people to grow their own food within their community for a wide range of social and environment benefits. We’re thrilled that this year a project in each of the 32 counties has been selected for funding.”
Amy O’Shaughnessy, Marketing Acquisition and Sponsorship Manager from Energia, “We had a phenomenal response to the campaign this year with entries from every county in Ireland. The passion and dedication of people across the country who are powering positive change in their communities is inspiring. At Energia we are committed to promoting sustainable living and helping families and communities to reduce their carbon footprint, so we’re delighted to support this initiative with GIY.”
In addition to the funding provided, GIY will also provide additional support and opportunities for knowledge exchange between the projects, helping the best ideas to be shared through ‘Energia Get Ireland Growing’. All of the projects remain part of the GIY network in the long term, giving them access to other GIY resources and additional groups and projects within the network, creating a long-term legacy.
This is the seventh year of the fund, which has already supported over 580 community food growing projects to date, positively impacting over 165,000 people. €485,000 has been awarded over the last seven years and this was distributed to projects all across the country.
For further details on the ‘Energia Get Ireland Growing’ 2019 see GIY.ie
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