A community project is turning fingers green with the introduction of gardening classes for local residents.
Located at St. Peter’s Church on Lytham Road, the project aims to clean up the church garden. Herbs and vegetables will be grown in to help provide fresh food in the community as part of a wider drop-in session which takes place at the church every Friday afternoon.
Hosted by the church, the council and Bay Housing Association, local residents in the area to access up to date information and advice on issues such as housing and jobs as well computers to support weekly activities. The church also provides food parcels to visitors on behalf of the Blackpool Food Partnership. The hope is that the sessions will create a community that can become more independent and self sustaining. Activities such as the gardening classes and litter collection also aim at increasing local responsibility and pride in the area.
As part of the transience project in South Beach, tools for gardening have been donated by Blackpool Council.
Cllr Jim Hobson said, “The Friday drop-in sessions are a really important way of helping the community to carry out daily tasks, without them becoming too reliant on our services.
“We’re teaching them resilience around getting help with housing or finding a job and these new gardening sessions will teach them useful horticultural skills around growing their own food and nutrition.
“The church has been extremely helpful in letting us use their garden for the project and hopefully if it’s successful we’ll be able to roll it out to other areas of South Shore in the near future.”
