A Bournemouth charity that teaches people to grow their own food and to feed the community is giving away jars of honey as part of its first crowdfunder.

The honey is made from the bees that live in hives on the top of the Sovereign Centre in Boscombe.

Grounded Community launched the crowdfunder last month with a target of £30,000.

So far more than £3,900 has been raised.

It plans to split the money between a host of projects including:

• The construction of an outdoor learning space.
• Its Feed the Community project which redistributes food from supermarkets to households in need.
• The Secret Garden, a hidden community growing space behind St Clement’s Church in Boscombe.

Michael French, pictured left, Grounded Community’s Founder and Projects Co-ordinator, said: “Over the last 12 months we’ve grown to accommodate the needs of the community as best we can.

“We took on the work of Boscombe’s Community Fridge, which was renamed Feed the Community, as they struggled to get funding during lockdown.

“With a 110 per cent increase in people using foodbanks last year, there are more and more families who need our support now.

“Feed the Community is not a small project.

“It costs in the region of £15,000 a year just to run and requires a team of 30 volunteers to coordinate pick ups from 65 supermarkets every week across the BCP area and then distribute to between 80 to 100 families in need.”

The project was originally established by Alan Kenny at ‘The Secret Garden’ in an unused and unwanted space behind St Clement’s Church in 2012.

With the help of community volunteers, a food-growing garden flourished in one of the most deprived wards in the country where 47 per cent of children are living in poverty.

Michael said: “The Secret Garden is a really special place.

“It’s where anyone can come and learn how to grow their own food, learn about our natural environment, pondlife, the birds, the bees, and insects.

“We have ‘open garden’ sessions every Monday and Friday morning where anyone can turn up and get involved and this is where a lot of the money is needed.

“We can have 30 volunteers turn up to one of our sessions and we need to make sure that we’ve got enough people to manage those volunteers.

“We need funding for soil and seeds, and the big project we’re prepping for now is the installation of the outdoor learning centre.

“We’re clearing the space now for the building which will be an open sided wooden cabin where we can host more structured, and sheltered, learning.

“We regularly have pupils in from the Coastal Learning Partnership group of schools which include the nearby Bethany CE Junior School and the St Clement’s and St John’s CE Infant School, and if it rains it’s not quite so much fun for the children, or the teacher.

“We want to encourage people to grow, and the construction of our outdoor learning space will be perfect for that.”

The new outdoor learning space, designed by Chair of Trustees John Hanson, will accommodate up to 30 people at one time and will service over 1,000 people that attend the existing Grounded Community workshops every year.

The workshops are designed to connect people with nature and cover a wide range of topics from how to build hedgehog houses, how to identify plants and insects, to workshops on what makes a healthy pond.

Money has already been raised from Hall and Woodhouse to pay for a wood fired pizza oven to host community meals.

In the last year, Grounded Community has also received support from other businesses and organisations including Rotary, JP Morgan, Dorset Community Foundation, Wessex Water, and The National Lottery.

The crowdfunding has options to fund from £10 up to £1,500 with rewards ranging from jars of honey from Grounded Community’s beehives located on top of the Sovereign Centre in Boscombe for £12, to and ‘Up Close and Personal Bee Experience for Two’ for £100.

Michael said: “It was important to us that we didn’t just ask for money.

“It’s been a tough year for everyone, and we know money’s tight.

“We thought by doing a crowdfunder that people could buy experiences or presents for people, or companies could use it for teambuilding days out.

“We really want to give something back to everyone that supports us, not just take.

“That’s at the very core of Grounded Community, it’s all about working with the community to make a positive difference to people’s lives.”

To find out more about the other projects Grounded Community is crowdfunding for, as well as the other rewards available please click here.

The crowdfunder deadline is Saturday April 10, 2021.