GROWE’s overall aim
GROWE works with women and families experiencing food poverty due to low income. We provide pathways into education and employment in sustainable land-based careers in Greater Manchester.
Problems
- The income of women and families experiencing food poverty does not support a healthy fresh organic diet, further compounding the inequalities they face particularly around health.
- We will address the lack of diversity in the environmental/horticulture/farming sector. We believe if ‘you can’t see it, you can’t be it’ and locally there are very few low income female, Black and Minority Ethnic role models from these sectors at a grassroots level and very limited training available locally.
GROWE’s solutions using FSCP funding
‘Grow our own’- people, food and land-based training
- We will teach women and families to grow their own food sustainably by creating an organic ‘no dig’ market garden at our site in Failsworth.
- We will grow culturally appropriate food in our polytunnels to create local
access to foods that would normally have to be imported and suit the diets of the families.
- We will maintain our 166-tree orchard together through developing efficient methods of capturing the harvest, sharing, selling and preserving the fruit.
- We will enable a route into an environmental career pathway at the grassroots level upwards for Women, Black and Ethnic Minorities, and other marginalised communities, as this is imperative to drive positive change and equality.
Victoria Holden from Grassroots Oldham Women Enterprise:
“We feel delighted to have been shortlisted for the Oldham Food Security Challenge Prize giving us the potential to access the resources needed to make our ideas happen. We feel those that are closest to the problem have the key to unlocking the solutions, and we certainly have lots of practical ideas on how we can do this at GROWE!”
