Grow Food, Grow Dunoon Open Day
Pop by for a visit at Kirn Primary School
Saturday 7th May, 11am to 2pm
On Saturday 7 May 2022 from 11am to 2pm, our Grow Food, Grow Dunoon project will be welcoming visitors to see the new growing site in the grounds of Kirn Primary School as part of the school’s Spring Fayre. We are also taking part in Food for Life Plant & Share Month, so you can plant a seedling on the day to take home and grow.
Grow Food, Grow Dunoon is a project led by Dunoon Area Alliance, the town’s new Community Development Trust. Working alongside Kirn Primary School staff and pupils, Grow Food, Grow Dunoon aims to bring adult volunteers and children together to take part in environmental action. The project is creating a ten-bed-rotation vegetable garden and enhancing school’s the existing poly tunnel to grow an interesting variety of edible plants. The project aims to provide fun and practical learning experiences for all ages and Kirn Primary School pupils have been involved from the outset in digging, planting and tending the crops. Both adults and children will develop new skills in food growing and strengthen their understanding of the importance of local food growing.
Food growing activities will run year-round with pupils from the school actively involved with their teachers and the adult volunteers in learning about our environment, our climate, nutrition, food supply chains and the value of local growing. The food produced through the project will be shared between the volunteers and the school, with any surplus distributed through local community projects.
Martin Gerrish, lead volunteer with Grow Food, Grow Dunoon said: ‘It has been fantastic to have the support of Dunoon Area Alliance and Kirn Primary School in getting this food growing project underway. A great deal of progre
ss has been made in just a couple of months and the volunteers and pupils are thoroughly enjoying working together to nurture the plants and learn together. We are delighted to have just been awarded a small grant from Argyll & Bute Council’s Supporting Communities Fund, so we are looking forward to improving the site even more.’
As a demonstration project, Grow Food, Grow Dunoon will provide evidence to support the development of other food growing sites across Dunoon and Cowal. By building local skills and interest in food growing this project will be part of a building a greener and more resilient Dunoon.