City Bridge Trust LCRF Wave 2The generous support of City Bridge Trust from July 2020 until October 2020 has allowed for us to employ a trainee grower to work specifically in the Victoria Park Growing space, receive support and learning from ourselves and Sustain via their Capital Growth Community harvest programme. This growing space concentrated on providing a backdrop for online community classes and grew food to donate to local food projects supporting the community through Covid. During the time of this grant 12.7kg harvested, estimated value £173.04, 159 meals produced, all from salad crops and herbs. Whilst our trainee has not gone on to gain employment in the community garden field they have gained knowledge, confidence and feel they will be able to move forward when the time is right.WhoseHeritage Community Banner - Heritage Lottery FundStarting in June 2019 and due to complete by June 2020 the project looks at celebrating Hackney's green and growing community space by producing a 1.5m x 2m community embroidered banner reminiscent ofthe suffragettes work. This was inspired by the evidence gathered during the Garden Manifesto work funded by City Bridge Trust and the responses recorded stating how Hackney residents feel towards their local accessible green spaces. Having lost the Cordwainers Garden in April 2019 it was also a way to celebrate this space and the memories it gave to everyone who attended events, classes or had a plot there. From June to November 2019 we ran weekly drop-in embroidery classes open to all which amounted to 144 hours of volunteer time given to supporting local residents in mastering embroidery techniques. We also attended four public events where three panels were crowd embroidered for thepiece and spoke to over 200 people about the importance of green spaces and mindful crafting. All the component pieces were put together into the large panel by the end of November and we aimed to haveit ready for a public exhibition in March 2020. At this point, a total of 177 people had been involved in sewing a small panel, piece or constructing the main area, with our youngest participant being age 4 and our oldest over 80. This has been a truly community piece.Local Food Relief Project - City Bridge Trust LCRFA small grant from City Bridge Trust to support ongoing work with the Union of Hackney gardens, distributing plants, seeds and sharing soil. We also managed to donate 108kg of food, the equivalent of 1,342 meals to local residents and refugees in need over the period July to September 2020. Without this funding, it is likely this food would have gone to waste. A trainee was employed over a period of 6 months to manage a small growing space and help coordinate the food distribution to local venues. This trainee has gone on to seek more community gardening work.Union of Hackney Gardens, Green Spaces and Orchards - National Lottery Awards for AllLeading on from the initial funding from City Bridge Trust we obtained a small award to officially set up the Union in Hackney linking in with Capital Growth to help register the gardens on their network mapand store the data securely. Receiving the funds in August 2019 we launched officially in late September at Dalston Eastern Curve garden with Chris Collins opening the event and a talk from Marie Murray.Photos from the Hackney Walks were on display highlighting some of the community gardens and spaces in the Union, a chance to vote on the new Union logo and mingle with other gardeners. This then led into monthly meetings with talks and activities. In October 2019 we met at De Beauvoir Estate to discuss planning and development impacts on local green spaces and gardens whilst learning how to whittle your own dibber from hazel wood kindly donated from the Wick Woodlands managed by the Tree Musketeers. In November we had a talk from horticulturist and garden designer Jack Wallington around his new book ‘Wild About Weeds’ with copies available kindly supported through the last of the funding from City Bridge Trust. Talks and meetings were set to continue from December through to June 2020 with a final celebration event in July/August 2020. At time of writing the Union now has over 63registered members and has adapted to the impact of Covid with online activities to be reported in the 2019/20 accounts.WhosHeritage - National Lottery Heritage FundInspired by the GLA funded community banner we applied to explore the theme of migration looking at plants instead of people but using this to highlight the acceptance of certain forms of migration over others. The desire was to show people generally that what you might believe to belong in the UK actually comes from much further afield and why can we accept the migration of plants but not people. We began looking at the ‘typical’ English cottage garden to see which flowers, vegetables and fruit would highlight this the most. We engaged graphic artist Kate Hyde to design illustrations for each of these plants and Southwark based artists Ricahrd Galpin to devise a game utilising the information gathered toexpand people's understanding. We began working with 17 attendees of weekly embroidery sessions at the Redmond Centre, Woodberry Down with space and time for the initial 6 weeks of this being covered by funding from the GLA banner project. These 17 embroidery volunteers represented 15 different languages and places across the globe. They chose plants that spoke to their heritage and began sewing them in late 2019. The project is due to finish in July 2020.Community Banner - Arsenal Foundation Gunners AwardThis very welcome small award from the Gunners fund has helped to support our work around nature, the horticultural heritage of Hackney and engaging volunteers with mindful crafting activities. Fundingembroidery supplies, space hire and refreshments for sessions this project started in late September 2019 and is due to finish in August 2020 when we will have produced another embroidered banner depicting the above-mentioned themes. We will also be working with the attendees of the Redmond Centre sessions as well as our weekly Monday night drop in sessions.HCD Lunchtime Garden - Our Space AwardFunding from the GLA ‘Our Space Award’ grant stream to work with volunteers at the Hackney Community Development offices on Beechwood Road, Hackney E8 to remove paving in a courtyardgarden and replace it with rainwater storage, a rain garden, keyhole growing space and socialising areas. This is to encourage users and residents of the area to grow their own lunch, utilise the space foroutdoor respite during the working day and alleviate rainwater run off in one of the most built up areas in Dalston. Work on this started in late November and is due to finish by March 2020

We run the Union of Hackney Gardens, Orchards and Green Spaces which has membership of 65 gardens with an estimated outreach of 260 local residents. These members are consulted on the direction and activities weprovide. With our other groups such as embroidery classes and natural dye projects the public is invited to give feedback on the activities, how they could be improved and any project development.

No remuneration was received

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration