A community garden charity that supports adults with learning disabilities and children struggling at school, has a new outdoor cooking area, thanks to funding from the National Lottery.
The Moulsecoomb Forest Garden & Wildlife Project offers cooking skills, gardening and outdoor education opportunities, and last year celebrated its 30th anniversary.
Daley Thompson, described as the greatest all-round athlete this country has ever produced, and a recent contestant in Celebrity Big Brother was there to open the facility. His partner’s son volunteers at the garden. He launched the new area by cutting a floral garland with a pair of secatuers. He said “I’ve just opened the Moulsecoomb Forest Garden’s open kitchen, they don’t have an indoor one! Lovely space with even lovelier people. I think that visit has inspired me more than them. Thank you Forest Garden!”
Cook Jo Pearson, who provides lunch for more than eighty people a week said: “This is already making a huge difference. We can now offer more support and more training – and we don’t get soaked every time it rains! People can learn to cook a healthy meal from scratch, and it’s a chance to harvest, cook and eat the vegetables that we grow, giving people an understanding of seasonality and a sense of connection to the garden around them. Peelings and garden waste are added to our huge onsite compost bays, revamped this year as part of the Food Use Places project. The resulting compost feeds our zero food miles fruit and veg.”
Collaboration was the name of the game, with woodland designer Ian Barnett working with volunteers of all abilities to support their work experience. Massive thanks must also go to Sunninghill Construction, Woodlouse Industries, The Wood Store Brighton, Wilderness Woods, Brunswick Landscapes and blacksmith Nigel Bevington who have all supported the project.
Project Manager Warren Carter said “Being a community garden, food obviously plays a massive part in what we do. Ian has designed our new kitchen area so that it nestles beautifully into the garden on the edge of the South Downs National Park. It will strengthen our collaborations with local disability services to move our volunteers into training and paid employment as well as being able to offer the space to other groups.”
The event took place on Tuesday 3rd June, with over 50 regular volunteers and guests coming along. Daley got a tour of the garden and chatted with the volunteers for over an hour and everyone enjoyed meeting their hero.
Lunch of griddled mediterranean vegetables with green salad, wild garlic pasta, tomato and basil salad, carrout houmos and homemade flatbreads was served up, and the few drops of rain did not spoil a thing!
For more information and to support the charity go to www.moulsecoombforestgarden.org/donate