Martin is our very first grower who signed up with us this morning.
Last year we delivered a food growing project through local housing charity Bolton at Home in Breightmet in Bolton. The project itself ‘Get growing Greenroyd’ worked with six families who were struggling to ends meet on Greenroyd Avenue in Breightmet. This year we are back in Breightmet and the project has been scaled up to work with around fourteen families. Today’s work began with a trip out to a local store to buy seeds, seed trays and other resources needed for the project. We then did some door to door inquiries to recruit people for the project. Up to now the response has been great, and we have managed to sign up eight growers with more on the way. As with last year’s growing project, Bolton at Home provide all of the growing resources, the on the ground support with gardening tips and advice, the installation of raised beds and digging in of fruit trees and bushes. Our base for this years project is the UCAN centre of New Lane, and the centre is already used by a good many residents who access training, advice and guidance there. Luckily for us, the centre has a small back yard that has been converted into a productive veg garden, and this is where some of our seeding and potting on will take place. 
Growing our way out of austerity
If you have a fairly spacious garden like many of the people we work with have, growing your own food in times of extreme economic uncertainty is a practical and direct solution that many people are just opening their eyes to, but for others who are completely separated from the way food is produced and prepared this can be a difficult struggle, and one which we will offer our full support whenever these new growers need it.
Breightmet is technically a food desert with zero fresh produce available in the few convenience stores around the estate. We want to change all of this. The Breightmet of the future that we would like to see is one where food production continues to develop to the point where it employs local people, and course, where residents on the estate have access to cleanly grown local food.
