Application forms will open this week, the 22nd of November for our 2018/2019 funding!
GIY and Ireland’s greenest energy provider, Energia, have teamed up once again to give 86 Communities a proper boost with a fund of €75,000 for 2018/2019.
The fund will be split across three categories – Sow, Grow and Harvest with awards ranging from €500 to €2,000. But this year one amazing community will receive €5,000 for their initiative from The Today Show!
Together GIY and Energia will award the grants to at least 86 community food growing groups up and down the country. We are so looking forward to boosting community food growing in such a meaningful way.
Last year we had over 700 applications for the Energia Get Ireland Growing Fund. Reading the applications we were amazed by the amount of groups, all over the country who are doing great work in so many locations. You can see more about some of the successful groups here, but these are really just the tip of the iceberg.
Applications from Men’s Sheds, hospitals, schools, creches, mental health facilities, rehab centres, GIY groups, community centres, allotments, residents’ associations and so many more poured in to us. Some groups had never so much as sown a seed, others were hoping to add a polytunnel to their productive garden. Some used the funding to set up beehives or build a pond, others just needed shovels and compost. The diversity of the groups, but their common goal, to grow food, is what makes this initiative so special.
Community food growing has always been at the heart of GIY. Over the years GIY has offered practical advice and moral support, but to do great community work requires resources. Mugs of tea can only fuel so much. Clearing space for an inner-city community garden, putting a polytunnel on a school roof or creating a pond at an allotment needs more than moral support. As resourceful as community groups are, nothing beats a cheque in the door. And a cheque that comes with the message “you can do this, we support you” is ten times better.
#GetIrelandGrowing