The young people are learning valuable life skills, such as gardening, outdoor cooking, teamwork and problem-solving, whilst working to improve their health and well-being, education and future career prospects.
Inspire to Grow Allotment projects
Our food growing allotment projects support young people to progress in and onto education, employment and training.
Pupils referred from secondary schools across Torfaen have worked with the Inspire to Grow project to help clean up a disused allotment patch in Coed Eva, Cwmbran. Where we have not only laid raised beds and erected Polly tunnels, but we have also recently created an outdoor cooking space to enhance the skills of the young people that use the allotment.
Improvements:
We took over the Coed- Eva allotment in January 2024 that had been unused for some time with a huge amount of waste and extremely over grown, a lot of waste had been dumped on the site, with the support of young people that come from a number of school across Torfaen to help work on the site to clear it ready for the growing session.
After many weeks of hard work clearing the area, we managed to get our Polly tunnel and raised beds constructed with the support of Keep Wales Tidy planting vegetables ready for the season.
What do we do with our product?
- We have entered our products into the Llangynidr Horticulture show and we have had 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes for our fruit and veg over the past 2 years.
- Our produce has also been used for buffets that have been made into Chutneys using our onions, chilies and garlic.
- Red Cabbage and onion into coleslaw and the tomatoes and potatoes into soups.
A positive food journey
Throughout the project we have worked with all comprehensive schools across Torfaen including the traveller community by encouraging and developing their own allotment and growing space. Whilst embedding a positive food journey to gain a better understanding of food and where it comes from and what we can do with it. Improved well-being and having fun in the food growth journey.
Project Milestones
70+
We have worked we over 70 young people working directly on the allotment in small groups of 2 to 3 allowing scope to take ownership of what they are growing and cooking in a safe space.
150+ hours
12 Volunteers working on both sites amounting to over 150 hours of volunteering and ongoing with numbers increasing into the new year 2025. We also have a junior success plus post supporting the allotment 25 hours a week.
150+ Trees
We have planted over 150 trees in Garn lakes and encouraged over 100 young people to grow their own daffodils at Llangynidr show.
One Year 11 pupil from a local has been involved in both allotment projects, they said:
“Being involved with the community project has allowed me to build on my cooking skills as well as enabling me to become more active. I hope more young people like me enjoy some of the experiences that I’ve had. I’m hoping to continue with the project and use the skills that I have acquired to help with employment opportunities soon.”
This young person has now gone onto a training programme after being a school refuser for the past 3 years and moving to the area after their mum passed away.
The Growing Season
During the growing season young people pick their own produce to take home. They also picked and cleaned produce to go to a local business called Tasty not Wasty from both allotments during the growing months. Our produce has also made its way to the Inspire Café based in TCBC Civic Centre, used in soups and toppings on pizza along with salad.
Networking
We attended the Food Network event with our growing your own food boxes with the young people from YGG. A group of five young pupils developed a grow your own box from start to finish over a school term from designing the cover to discussing “what to go into the box”. They undertook market research and pricing strategies as part of the project.
The young people from the school sold the boxes as part of an enterprise at both the food network event and the café launch. There was a large present at the event from not just the Local Authority but the Community and private businesses from across the authority.
