Growing healthy in Gateshead
A ground-breaking foodbank project is changing lives as well as improving diets
Tinned beans, pasta, rice… typical foodbank donations fill the stomach, but perhaps not the soul. With a little help from the RHS, however, one foodbank now also gives out fresh produce from a garden that’s great for both physical health and mental wellbeing.
In the UK, the demand for emergency food parcels from foodbanks has surged in recent years: the Trussell Trust handed out a staggering 1.5 million in the year to April. A Trussell Trust foodbank runs from Blaydon Methodist Church, close to the southern banks of the Tyne in Gateshead, and is home to a unique collaboration that now helps provide regular free, fresh food to more than 100 people.
Making a difference
Through the Greening Great Britain campaign, they were able to access funding and expert advice from community outreach advisor, Christine Wright. The church-side space has been transformed into a productive and pretty garden, brimming with leeks, onions, courgettes, cabbages, purple sprouting broccoli and herbs.
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It's about inspiring change in people to be healthier and happier'
There are mental health benefits too. People visiting the foodbank are encouraged to come into the garden, and volunteer if they can. The garden is always open, people are always welcome. 'It's adding value to a potentially very depressing situation – it's about self-worth,' says Christine.
Local children entitled to free school meals attend the Gateshead Council “Fill The Holiday Gap” scheme at the church. They can come to get a free lunch during the school holidays and have helped to pot up hanging baskets with herbs to take home and small pots of herbs for the foodbank to give away.
Plot to plate
The RHS would like to thank M&G Investments for its support of this programme in 2019.
