Residents in north Kensington ‘Give it a Grow’

With few green spaces nearby, the residents of the Lancaster West estate in north Kensington wanted more opportunities to get close to nature. Our grant to the Hubbub Foundation is helping them do just that. An unused space on the estate will be turned into a flourishing green area for gardening and growing food as part of their ‘Give it a Grow’ project. Residents will plant food and flowers and tend this space, with the support of a local community gardener. Around 20 residents are being trained to become volunteer gardeners themselves and maintain the communal food growing area.

Expert input from professional gardeners

The Lancaster West estate is home to people from around the world, including Somalia, Africa, the Caribbean and Morocco, so the food grown will aim to reflect the different cultures of the growers. The project offers expert input from professional gardeners with specialist knowledge of the types of food that the residents want to grow and the local growing conditions. Give it a Grow also offers Facebook Live sessions on growing, the importance of nature, and cooking. Food grown on the plot is collected and redistributed for free to the local community through a ‘Community Fridge’ – a space where everyone can share surplus food, including donations from local food businesses, producers, households and gardens.

Part of our £23,500 grant funded 500 Give it a Grow kits for residents. These include bulbs and seeds to grow flowers which attract pollinators, herbs for cooking, and organic growing matter made from coconuts.

Environmental, social and financial benefits

Some of the key benefits of the Give it a Grow project include:

• Local people get to eat locally grown, healthy, seasonal food, helping to cut carbon emissions
• Learning to grow using strong sustainability principles helps people to better understand and connect with nature.
• People can connect with their local area as they learn new skills, and make new friends.
• The project helps to reduce the amount of money residents spend on food.

Our partner charity Hubbub Foundation, has been designing campaigns that inspire ways of living that are good for the environment since 2014. They concentrate on day-to-day ideas, like fashion, food, the homes we live in and the spaces around us. They offer simple, practical and realistic solutions that help cut waste, make clothes last longer, save money and create cleaner spaces to live and work in, and bring people together. Find out more about Hubbub Foundation here.