Chiswick House Wins Funds for Community Programme |
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Money will support a range of activities mainly in the Kitchen Garden
Chiswick House & Gardens has been awarded a grant of £180,000 from The Linbury Trust to support its Community Participation Programme over the next three years. The programme will include a range of inclusive activities for the local community: from learning about growing plants and identifying insects and wildlife with young children and their families, to music workshops with adults with disabilities, cooking, arts, crafts and much more. Many of the proposed activities will take place in the Kitchen Garden – which has been a vital community space for many years. This includes helping to increase knowledge about food cultivation, nutrition and horticulture, and improving mental and physical health and wellbeing and opportunities to build skills with the experienced Kitchen Gardener and volunteers. There will be a focus on supporting a diverse mix of participants in terms of age, ethnicity and ability. The programme will be led by a Community Participation Manager and Kitchen Gardener as well as a new Kitchen Gardener apprentice, all funded by the grant. Through the Programme, Chiswick House & Gardens will also be working towards what it describes as ambitious biodiversity outcomes: a ‘no dig’ approach to gardening, zero use of herbicides, improving composting and water capture, 100% reuse of plastic containers and pots on the Estate, 100% reuse of natural materials arising from coppicing for fencing, supporting vegetable cultivation, creating dead hedge habitats and a 90% reduction of peat use. Xanthe Arvanitakis, Director of Chiswick House & Gardens said, ‘We are delighted that The Linbury Trust are supporting our community programme. We’re absolutely committed to ensuring we shape the programme with and for our local communities and this is now possible with the support of The Linbury Trust grant’. Chiswick House and Gardens is keen to hear from community groups who would like to use the Gardens and work alongside the Trust. Contact Harvinder Bahra Community Participation Manager at community@chgt.org.uk for more information. The Linbury Trust is a UK-based grant-making foundation which is part of the wider Sainsbury Family Trust network.
June 17, 2021 |