Our Community Kitchen and Knox Academy team up for community garden

Our Community Kitchen is working with Knox Academy Meadowpark to develop a community growing project in the school’s playground.

The new scheme – Our Community Garden – aims to continue the fight to reduce isolation and loneliness in the community.

Elaine Gale, founder of Our Community Kitchen, which is based in nearby Haddington Bowling Club, was excited about the new project.

Our Community Kitchen ..founder Elaine Gale.. has celebrated the partnership with Haddington Bowling Club. Picture: Peter Devlin.

She said: “We will be planting, growing and cooking food outdoors with pupils and the local community to allow for friendships and connections to develop.

“The project will provide vegetables, fruit and herbs for us to use in the bowling club and for Knox Academy Meadowpark pupils and the wider community.”

Already, work has started outside the school – which is home to pupils with a range of additional support needs – on Victoria Road, with wooden decking put in place.

Elaine said: “We will have a greenhouse, a vertical garden and an outdoor kitchen so we can cook what we grow and have demonstrations. We aim to have polytunnels, too.

“There will be lots of different activities and collaborative opportunities throughout the year, with the aim of bringing pupils and the wider community together, such as learning about growing our own food, cooking and environmental activities, etc.

“The garden will be accessible on weekends and during the holidays and we can tend to the plants and provide a vital maintenance service during this time.

“We feel this is the right time to be focusing outdoors due to Covid, as it will give us the opportunity to develop this safely.”

Already, the scheme has drawn support from the community. Members of the public have offered to build planters, with others offering to volunteer and provide advice.

The group is also continuing to prepare, cook and deliver hot food across the community to people at home, while working with local GPs on a referral system.

Our Community Kitchen and Knox Academy Meadowpark are teaming up for a new project

Steven Johnson, depute headteacher at Knox Academy, said: “It is an incredibly exciting project that I’m delighted to be helping drive forward, after picking up the reins from Meadowpark’s previous deputy headteacher, Charli Prime.

“Charli and Elaine’s hard work has got the project up and running and I’m really pleased to be able to help push it forward.

“It will make a significant impact on the lives of isolated and vulnerable people, offering great opportunities to develop skills and provide some much-needed support.

“We would love support to help us develop the facilities, for example, by converting some of our bike shelters to polytunnels, and if there’s anyone out there who could help us with this or anything else then please get in touch.”