Castlehaven Community Association
Growing better together
Access to nutritious fruit and veg and understanding how best to use it is essential for good health. Castlehaven Community Association (CCA) has launched Edibeds, a community-based food initiative in Camden, north London, to involve local people with growing their own produce. At least 200 people will learn basic horticultural skills and take part in workshops learning how to grow, prepare and cook fresh food.
Improving health and wellbeing, and investing in our communities and environment is important to us. We are delighted to support CCA with a grant of £25,000 towards Edibeds. This will allow CCA to build raised beds at two food growing sites – Elm Village and the Environmental Hub – so that wheelchair users and people with mobility issues can take part in gardening activities. CCA will give out starter kits to grow food at home, so that food growing ripples out into the community. They’ll invest in sustainable gardening by installing rainwater capture systems and exploring the use of solar powered pumps.
- CCA is a Camden in Bloom award winning garden with 2279 regular service users.
- Only 25% of CCA’s local residents have access to local public open spaces.
- CCA received 40 referrals from health services and agencies in the last year.
Beds to benefit the community
CCA supports a huge range of ages of local people who will benefit from Edibeds. The beds will be used by 8 to 13-year-olds signed up for Activ8, CCA’s term-time and holiday provision for kids. Isolated older people enrolled in Ageactivity will also make use of the improved facilities.
The more than 250 people who use CCA’s foodbank, Foodhaven, will be able to supplement their diets with food they have grown themselves. GPs and agencies can refer people to Healthhaven, CCA’s programme of community-based health activities. Edibeds will be a key part of environmental activities to improve people’s physical and mental wellbeing.
“Repairing and replacing the beds at Elm Village would be the best thing that could happen! Knowing that we can grow food for our community would be a great help for everyone, and for my mental health – a light at the end of the tunnel.”
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