Deadline: 2-Jul-23
Lewisham local has launched the Foraging, Food Growing and Cooking Activities Small Grant Programme.
The fund is aimed at community growing projects around the borough to encourage local people to engage with foraging, growing and cooking activities by providing small grants of up to £325 to run activities and workshops. It could be a foraging trail in a park, cooking with foraged ingredients, showing people what grows in their community garden or giving foraging and growing tips.
They would like to encourage organisations to apply that work with communities that experience inequity or whose members face barriers to participation in food growing and/or projects that address related issues. For example, organisations that work with communities that experience racial inequity, areas where there are high levels of deprivation, people who are educationally or economically disadvantaged, disabled people (including those with physical and mental impairments that have a long term impact on the quality of life). This may include organisations that grow or plan to grow cultural foods, work on anti-racism, grow food to give and work with workshop leaders from marginalised communities.
Lewisham Local is the host of Good Food Lewisham, a network of people who are passionate about transforming the local food system in Lewisham. To support this area of work, and based on previous well-received food growing related small grants programmes, Lewisham Local is releasing funds to support the programme.
Aims
- Programme aims:
- Increase the number of food growing/foraging/community cooking activities in Lewisham by supporting organisations to host additional activities
- Increase the number of and diversity of people involved in these activities
- Encourage people who would not usually get involved in these activities to participate e.g. people on low incomes, people from certain communities
- Increase the visibility and awareness of local community food growing and related initiatives
- Increase knowledge and skills in this area
- Encourage links between projects and community connections.
Funding Information
- There are six grants of up to £325 from a total fund of £1950 available to community groups and charitable organisations to deliver additional foraging, food growing and cooking activities/workshops.
What can you apply for?
- Workshop facilitation (they encourage groups to work with local and/or people from marginalised groups)
- Event space hire
- Workshop/event resources (such as seeds, plants, tools)
- Printing publicity
- Refreshments (ideally healthy, sustainable, local etc. rather than from a supermarket)
- Travel expenses if necessary
- Project Coordination.
Eligibility Criteria
- A constituted group with a committee of 3 or more people not related to each other, and a bank account in the name of the organisation that meets on a regular basis (at least three times per year)
- Registered charity, with a board of trustees
- Charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
- Not-for-profit company such as a Company Limited by Guarantee or a Community interest company (CIC). CICs or companies limited by guarantee will be asked to provide copies of their Community Interest Statement, details of the Asset Lock included in the Memorandum and Articles of Association and a copy of the latest annual community interest report and provide evidence that there are a minimum of three unrelated directors with no one director with more than 50% control)
- Community benefit society
- Unconstituted groups without a bank account in their name can apply to offer a project but must find a local host organisation, to host the money and cover insurance and policies.
- Organisations must have public liability insurance and an organisational bank account.
- Organisations and groups must have a safeguarding policy and appropriate checks if working with children and/or vulnerable adults.
- Organisations should have a risk assessment associated with the proposed project or a health and safety policy.
Criteria for Projects
- Organisations must be based in Lewisham and activities/workshops must take place in the London borough of Lewisham or borders (for example if the park or garden is on the border of Lewisham but has a lot of visitors from Lewisham), as long as it mainly benefits people who live/work/study etc. in Lewisham. They are looking for geographical spread around the borough.
- Workshops/Activities must take place between Monday 17th of July and Sunday 3rd September, and include a foraging, food growing or cooking with foraged/own grown ingredients element
- Workshops/Activities must include an educational aspect with participants learning about picking, growing and/or cooking with local food.
- Groups must provide information to Lewisham Local on the scheduled activities to promote through their network
- Organisations must source their own workshop facilitator
- Organisations are encouraged to work with and promote Good Food Lewisham and the Lewisham Growing Network (a network of community growing spaces being developed by Lewisham Local and partners) at events and more generally.
For more information, visit Lewisham Local.