Please note the annual bonfire has been moved back a week to Tuesday 21 March 2023. Sorry – but the weather dictates.
Category: News Page 7 of 80
We are delighted to announce that GFAA’s application to the Scotmid Community Orchard scheme has been successful. We are to receive £200 for the purchase of fruit trees or bushes to extend out existing Community Orchard in the communal garden area on site.
Thanks go to Ron (Plot 65A) who wrote our bid and, of course, to Scotmid for offering their excellent Community Orchard Scheme.
We are tickled pink to be one of the early participants in the programme and have the chance to help add to the thousands of trees that will grow throughout local communities, from the north of England to the Highlands of Scotland – all thanks to Scotmid.
Plotters or volunteers who can offer advice, or help with purchase, planting or maintenance, please get back in touch. We would love to hear from you.
ACVO have announced the winning bids in the latest round of the Scottish Government’s Just Transition Programme funding. It is a great pleasure to announce that GFAA’s Fresh Food for Frugal Families project has been awarded full funding.
The funding will facilitate our volunteers working with Kaimhill Primary School pupils to grow and cook their own vegetables and share surplus produce with local residents and the wider Aberdeen Community.
The funding will allow us to further enhance the experiences we offer to our volunteer squad and visiting community organisations including Kaimhill Primary School, while strengthening our reputation for reaching out to share the benefits of plot working with our local residents and community.
This was the first time that Garthdee Field had competed for funding within Scottish Government’s Participatory Budgeting system where, after an initial technical scrutiny, bids enter a second phase of competition where members of the public vote for their favoured projects. Twenty-two projects went forward into the public vote, 4541 valid votes were cast and GFAA secured ninth place, and so was awarded full funding. Further voting details are available here.
We would like to say a huge thanks to the nearly 2000 voters who supported our bid and a very special mention goes to our plotters and volunteers, Aberdeen City Council, Kaimhill Primary School and Inchgarth Community Centre for their very welcome support and encouragement.
Details of the 13 successful bids are available here on ACVO’s Website.
SCOTMID COMMUNITY ORCHARD is an environmental and wellbeing initiative that will benefit almost 200 communities across Scotland.
The Society is looking for a group close to each of its stores to purchase and plant at least five fruit-bearing trees or bushes, the plants or trees will be funded by Scotmid.
We are pleased to announce that GFAA has submitted a bid for five fruit trees to be used to extend out existing Community Orchard within our Communal Garden.
Thanks go to Rebecca Dunn from CFINE for alerting us to this opportunity and to Ron (Plot 65A) who built and submitted our bid.
Applications are still open and may be submitted here:
UPDATE: Success!
Phil (Plot 57) attended an It’s Your Neighbourhood Celebration hosted by Aberdeen City Council this week and was presented with our top ranking, “Outstanding with Distinction” Award Certificate for our 2022 entry.
It was smashing to see us maintain our ranking for another year and thanks go to all of the plotters, volunteers and friends of Garthdee Field Allotments whose efforts around the site and on plots made it possible.
Our community projects are always recognised as our strength on these occasions and we very much hope our Fresh Food for Frugal Families project will win funding in the current Scottish Government’s Just Transition Scheme. If you haven’t voted for us here’s the link and remember, everyone in the household can vote! Voting closes tomorrow at noon – so please vote now!
Our Project
In the Fresh Food for Frugal Families Project, local primary pupils will work with volunteers to grow and cook their own vegetables, providing tasty, inexpensive, and healthy meals for themselves and their families. While they do so, they will develop thrifty habits and learn the importance of acting local to protect nature and the environment from Climate Change.
Together we will:
- Experience the joys of working in teams outdoors in the fresh air
- Grow and cook food to share with our families and local residents via TAMS
- Learn how tasty, inexpensive and healthy home-grown food can be
- Understand why locally grown food is better for our environment
- explore practical ways of protecting the environment while cutting carbon
- Learn to feed and conserve the soil to grow healthy disease-free vegetables
- Create growing spaces safe for all sorts of bugs and beasties
- Find out how green growing can cut emissions and protect against Climate Change
- Recycle, repurpose and compost materials to cut down landfill waste.
How the funding will help
The Just Transition funding will allow us to enhance the experiences we offer our volunteers and school visitors by providing equipment to cut our carbon emissions and two outdoor learning spaces: a greenhouse laboratory and a solar powered workshop and classroom. These new spaces will also allow visits to go ahead in inclement weather.
Pupils will attend one afternoon a week over the full 10 week summer term. Our Volunteer Squad attends three times a week, 11 months of the year.