Tagsa Uibhist has secured funding of up to £60,000 from the Wolfson Foundation to build a dynamic and inclusive Community Gardens Hub on the island of Benbecula.
This structure will be nestled in Tagsa’s busy and highly valued community gardens at East Camp Balivanich on the Isle of Benbecula.
The Community Gardens Hub will be a focal point for people to be active, to have access to, and grow fresh nutritious food, to take part in Arts Therapies and inter-generational events, to be trained in horticulture, to learn new skills together, and to be part of a revitalization of local food production for health and wellbeing.
This project is a vital response to the enormous challenges of social isolation, an ageing and often inactive population and lack of access to fresh nutritious food in Uist due to inflated food prices on the islands, and regular delivery failures. Our aspiration to build a Community Gardens Food Hub is based on in-depth research and community feedback that highlights the need to respond to social isolation and lack of access to affordable nutritious food if we are to improve health and wellbeing on our islands.
By successfully establishing the Community Gardens Hub, we believe that we will be able to attract more funds to further develop this project as a vital resource for positive health and wellbeing activities in Uist for the long term.
In announcing the award, Paul Ramsbottom, Chief Executive at the Wolfson Foundation, said:
‘We are pleased to be able to support Tagsa Uibhist with a grant towards their Community Gardens Hub. The outdoor structure will provide a welcoming space to expand their health and wellbeing activities and will be an important asset for Uist. We have a commitment to funding across the UK, and so particularly welcome our partnership with the island community of Benbecula.’
Tagsa Uibhist’s Chief Executive, Chris MacLullich, said:
‘It is superb that we have this support from the Wolfson Foundation to build our Community Gardens Hub here at Tagsa. We are thankful for the generosity and belief in our work that will allow us to do so much more for the community in our Gardens. We already know that the Community Gardens are loved by so many in Uist, for our fresh vegetables, local food markets, volunteering opportunities and for the events and activities we do with people of all ages and abilities. We believe in the huge value of this project as both a bold statement and as a practical site for community gardening as a proven, but also novel, way to boost people’s health, to reduce loneliness and provide opportunities for social inclusion and therapeutic interventions. We also believe that this new structure will add to the collaborative nature of our work, internally and with other agencies, and will open up new opportunities for training and employment’.
