In 2023, we entered our tenth year of working with TAMS. GFAA’s participation in The Allotment Market Stall Project (TAMS) started in the 2013 summer season. Our partnership blossomed and we hope it will grow further in the future.
TAMS seeks to cut waste from allotment sites, offer volunteering opportunities, reduce food miles by selling only fruit and vegetables grown in Aberdeen and give any surplus to the food bank network. In this way it contributes to the health and well-being of the citizens of Aberdeen and give access to high quality, competitively priced fruit and vegetables grown with love and care by the allotment gardeners.
In 2014, TAMS worked with Aberdeen City Council (ACC), Community Food Initiative North East (CFINE) and the Community Payback Team. Aberdeen City Council collected the produce from the allotment sites, the Community Payback Team helping sort the produce at the warehouse as well as setting up a stall for us in The Duthie Park. CFINE have generously donated warehousing space to weigh and store the produce and equipment. CFINE also coordinate the Foodbanks Partnership Aberdeen and will pass on surplus produce to this network so that people on low incomes struggling to feed their families also benefit from the surplus produce from allotments. TAMS will also be working with volunteers recruited through the allotments and Aberdeen Council for Voluntary Organisations (ACVO) among other places. TAMS are always short of volunteers to staff the market stall so if you have spare time on a Friday or a Saturday then please consider helping them out.
Members of GFAA can contribute by leaving any surplus produce they have in the green containers in the bothy for collection every Thursday over the summer. TAMS passes back any net return from veggie sales to GFAA and monies are used to support communal projects within GFAA. In recent years TAMS made a contribution of approaching exceeded £400 to our funds and as importantly allowed us to share surplus produce with our wider Aberdeen Community.
We look forward to further success with TAMS in the years ahead.
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