Community project gives boost for local cooks and gardeners

South Shropshire could be bursting with new cooks and gardeners in the months and years to come as a new community project gets under way.

The Grow, Cook and Share initiative is to launch in the spring and will focus on encouraging and enthusing both school children and the wider community about growing food and cooking it themselves.

The four-year project for Craven Arms and Ludlow East has two full-time staff, Valerie Meehan and Sarah Robinson, and has been funded by the Big Lottery Fund's Local Food scheme in conjunction with Leader, a rural development funding programme which operates throughout Europe.

It was developed by Ludlow 21, South Shropshire Housing Association and Craven Arms Community Food, in partnership with three schools, two community centres and the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre.

Valerie and Sarah will be focusing on providing practical support to existing gardening and cookery clubs in the primary schools, while promoting home-grown fruit and veg and home cooking throughout the community.

Wider community access to produce will be organised using the schools and community centres as distribution points for surplus garden produce and bulk purchases of seasonal fruit and vegetables grown in the area.

Two new gardens will be created at Rockspring Community Centre and Ludlow Junior School. Craven Arms Community Centre, with its state-of-the-art training kitchen will provide an ideal venue for cookery training.

Grow, Cook and Share will also look to maximise garden use by teaming up those who would like to grow their own vegetables with those who bring years of knowledge and expertise.

Helen Vaughan, regeneration and community development officer at South Shropshire Housing Association, said: "Connecting our youngsters with food is important, particularly in a rural community such as ours, but we can have so much more effect by spreading the enthusiasm and skills throughout the community, while also improving people's access to locally grown fresh produce.

"This is a very exciting project and we hope to get many, many people involved."