CCF HAYFIELD FOOD, HAYFIELD COMMUNITY CENTRE. Hayfield Road, Kirkcaldy KY2 5DG Website

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1 CCF HAYFIELD FOOD, HAYFIELD COMMUNITY CENTRE Hayfield Road, Kirkcaldy KY2 5DG Website Claims Contact - Rosemary Potter Project Contact - Carol Sidey Starting Point This project grew originally out of a local community initiative some 6 years ago to improve the appearance, usefulness and sustainability of the Community Centre and its grounds. The Committee took up the challenge and took forward suggestions of incorporating food growing to make better use of the grounds, with workshops set up to create vegetable beds and a children s miniature garden. Volunteers from the community came forward to construct the first raised bed and growing initiatives in the Parent & Child Group were met with enthusiasm by young and old, with demands for more. We then identified that we were at capacity as volunteers and could not develop interest or support a group in growing food without additional focussed resources of time, equipment and personnel. Alongside improving the outdoor garden space were upgrades to the indoor facilities including a new office and kitchen with doors to an accessible deck area leading in to the garden. This would allow for additional food related activities to take place, cooking, food waste reduction and events and workshops accessible by all in the garden area. Planned outcomes We will make carbon savings of 60 tonnes by local families reducing food waste We will make carbon savings of 1.86 tonnes by local families growing their own vegetables in our dedicated food growing area instead of purchasing them. We will make carbon savings of tonnes by local families composting food waste instead of it going to landfill

2 50 people accessing the community centre will reduce their travel related carbon by tonnes walking, cycling or taking the bus for journeys under a mile instead of using the car. Local families will have improved mental and physical health from participating in food growing activities and from the community cohesion of the group activities. Local users of the project will acquire new skills to share in the community, and greater understanding of a low carbon future, by participation in the project s activities Hayfield Food Project in Kirkcaldy will develop a community growing space in the grounds of Hayfield Community Centre where local families can grow fresh, nutritious vegetables, cutting food miles, carbon emissions and costs. A part time Project Manager will lead in organising workshops and providing support on growing, harvesting, cooking and making best use of the produce from the gardens. Further project activities include initiatives to reduce food waste and increase use of sustainable travel. Headline achievements This will be your executive summary and might be useful for press releases, celebrations with your community or letters to your supporters. It is a good idea to put this section together last! Once you have gathered information for the rest of the report, your headline achievements will probably jump out at you. What goes here? The highlights, the things you are most proud of and/or that the funders would be most interested in. For CCF, we would like to see your CO2e reductions included here. Where do I get this from? From the rest of the report. Activities April October 2015 During the first half of our project we mainly worked with our contractors to complete the grounds works in the growing area. These included a new set of raised beds, accessible paths/ramps/lighting to and around the growing area, tool shed, cycle parking and inside a new kitchen with energy efficient appliances. Building improvements were also underway to the centre to make the building more energy efficient and sustainable for future users, this project had an initial completion date of May 2016 but due to various delays did not complete until October Due to the site restrictions we were limited to how much could be done in the garden, volunteers could only use a small section of the existing raised beds which were fenced off from the main building site. January 2014 page 2

3 Outreach - To keep project momentum going we did some outreach work with a local group of visually impaired young adults, designed wheelchair friendly raised beds and meeting twice a week to run growing sessions. These were very successful with the following outcomes: 22kg of food grown, harvested and then used for lunches in the centre kitchen. Reducing food bought & delivered by the local supermarket. Participants with physical disabilities and/or vision impairment were all able to take part & benefit during each session. Painting the wooden planters, planting seeds, picking produce, cooking lunch, eating seasonal local produce or simply benefiting from being outdoors. In the summer school holidays we decided to arrange some day s out in partnership with the sustainable communities initiative based at Kinghorn Loch. This would allow local children who can normal use the community centre grounds to take part in outdoor sustainable low carbon themed activities. 12 trips were arranged and focussed on nature walks, edible hedgerows, making bird feeders, windmills and planters from recycling plastic bottles. Learning about rainwater collection and native plants. Parents also attended giving them low impact ideas to take home. Marketing & Publicity - These months was also used to set up a website, facebook page and account to start to publicise the new facilities and have an up to date way of keeping in touch with local people. Digital Fife assisted with training and a system to build the website. Our first newsletter was compiled and send round. Visits to other centres to see what works well for them and to share ideas. Also to let them know that Hayfield is opening again and what will be on offer. Equipment - We were also able to purchase tools, equipment and peat free compost to give us a head start once access to the garden was possible. Some recycled compost was obtained from the council and we supported a local tool refurbishment charity (the ecology centre) by purchasing recycled tools from their workshop saving some carbon rather than buying new. Open Day - Finally we then started to plan our open day for 31 st October. The aim of this day was to bring as many local people to the centre to see the new facilities and what s on offer. With the centre having been closed for nearly 2 years it was important to get the message out that it s available again. The day included garden tours & workshops, Dr bike, human energy demonstrations based on cycling, cookery competitions and representations from all the established groups that attend the centre. November 2015 March 2016 Contractor delays and snagging was still an issue but from November we were back in. As we were now in the winter season for growing we had the last potato harvest before then looking to plan for next year. Growing Planning sessions to decide what to grow in the extended garden space. Choosing seeds and looking at how much space different plants required. Fruit trees January 2014 page 3

4 were moved, pruned & staked. Fruit bushes & rhubarb were purchased to expand the growing area further. Food waste & Cookery Our parent & child group attend the centre once a week and were one of the initial groups to ask for more growing & cookery workshops. Cookery sessions were arranged for small groups of parents to attend focussing on using leftovers to make a meal or snack and reducing their waste. Survey s of favourite meals & most wasted food were done to help give context to these sessions. Food waste was also measured each week with the volunteers that provide the kids snack. This carried on through to the end of the project with significant drops in waste going to landfill. Training 2 volunteers were put through the elementary food hygiene course which was run locally by Fife Voluntary Action, both passed & are able to work in the kitchen with lunch clubs or run cookery sessions. Bike maintenance Dr bike was popular at the open day so a follow up was arranged to provide local people with basic bike maintenance skills, some parents bringing bikes along to Dr Bike admitted not knowing how to fix punctures. A group of 6 signed up for this course. Food on film In February we screened A Bug s Life during a short school holiday. We were lucky to also be able to hire a large screen from Colinsburgh community cinema to make the experience much more cinema like! Kids & adults enjoyed seeing the film on the large screen. Lunch club plans to get our own lunch club off the ground were made after a few requests at the open day to have a day when anyone from the local community can come along for something to eat and take part in other social activities. This club will bring people to the centre that can then use the garden and take part in regular cookery sessions. Next year produce from the garden will be used for soups & salads. January 2014 page 4

5 Outcomes We will make carbon savings of 60 tonnes by local families reducing food waste This outcome was based on lifetime savings for 30 people reducing their food waste by 85%. This outcome has been partially delivered. To collect baseline figures we tried the love food hate waste food diary and the kitchen canny packs. The diary was much easier for people to use but with any food waste going to the council recycling bin or pets most families results showed very little waste compared to the national average. Kitchen canny was not as good being more effort filling a bag then weighing it and then having to take out the food and recycle the bag. Council biodegradable bags were a better option rather than the very large kitchen canny bags. Household baseline figures were not giving us much detail on where we could help. Once the centre re-opened in October recycling bins were provided and a better idea came along when we started to look at how groups that used the hall prepared food. One group volunteered to take part and we started to weigh each weeks waste from preparation to what came back to the kitchen as waste. Baseline figures were 960g waste per day for snacks being prepared for an average of 16 children. This meant that each child was wasting 60g of food per visit which equates to 20% of the daily household average of 0.3kg. Simple steps were taken to make an immediate change to the amount of waste. Bread crusts no longer being removed from sandwiches, all fruit peelings going to the compost bin and better planning based on numbers attending the group meant that the average waste dropped to an average of 370g per week. Based on the 16 children this resulted in each child wasting 23g of food per visit equating to 8% of the daily average. This group have now made expected lifetime carbon savings of: Waste reduced from going to landfill by 0.59kg per week = 30.68kg per year then using the Emissions from landfilling household waste factor of X = 14.08kg CO2e saved. Lifetime savings assume 10 years 10 X = kg CO2e saving. We will make carbon savings of 1.86 tonnes by local families growing their own vegetables in our dedicated food growing area instead of purchasing them With the food growing area being out of action for most of the growing season we still managed to deliver this outcome based on amount of food produced but due to changes through the year in the conversion factor the savings are now higher than expected. Potatoes did get planted and the fruit trees did produce apples. Outreach work with a local group also boosted this crop. All food grown resulted in less being purchased from the supermarket tonnes saving was based on the new expanded growing area being available. What we actually had was 15sqm including the trees. In addition there were 4 sqm of planters used by the outreach group. Actual harvest figures were: 40kgs potatoes, 24kgs of apples and 22kgs of food from the planters = 86kg Multiply by the Average embodied emissions of food factor 4.06 = kg CO2e saving. Taking this up to a lifetime savings figure assuming 10 years = 10 X = 3.49 tonnes January 2014 page 5

6 We will make carbon savings of tonnes by local families composting food waste instead of it going to landfill This outcome was not delivered due to all families using their council brown bin to compost food. The community centre now has 3 compost bins for producing garden compost/soil conditioner and groups using the centre and preparing food can use these bins for veg/fruit peelings, tea bags, coffee grounds etc. 50 people accessing the community centre will reduce their travel related carbon by tonnes walking, cycling or taking the bus for journeys under a mile instead of using the car. This outcome has been partially delivered due to groups not being able to attend the centre until November We ve compiled a local transport map with all bus routes, A3 map provided by stagecoach. Route map of getting around by bike and leaflets on local walking routes to encourage a more active lifestyle. From April to July 2 community bikes were on loan to 2 local people who didn t have bikes they could use. On average each bike was used 3 times per week to & from work with a total average mileage of 21 miles. The bikes were used for 16 weeks, 16 X 21 miles = 336 less miles travelled by a small petrol car. 336miles X Emission factor = 85.68kg CO2e saved Bikes have now been serviced and are available for loan again in For lifetime savings we would assume 3 years on the above annual saving taking the overall figure to 257kg CO2e or 0.257tonnes. This outcome was of course difficult due to starting in the winter and both poor weather and dark nights/mornings not being any incentive to those starting out making a change. Bike maintenance & Dr bike meant we got 12 bikes back to being safe & roadworthy. Buggy walks to & from the centre for groups with young children was also hampered by the weather & time of year. Make your move was a local charity promoting active travel who we hoped to work with on this but unfortunately they finished up before the project started. Local families will have improved mental and physical health from participating in food growing activities and from the community cohesion of the group activities. This outcome is still progressing so partially delivered. People attending the centre have increased from 400 to 500, some attending new group activities and others starting to help out in the garden. People attending some non-garden activities have got in touch to find out how they can start to grow their own simply from seeing what s now available. With the centre & grounds being a building site for a long period many in the immediate locality are noticing how nice & welcoming the centre now looks. Simple surveys were done with the outreach group and all indicated how much they had enjoyed the garden sessions. Carers experienced some people spending more time outdoors and taking an interest in their food after collecting & cooking their own produce. The garden project led to craft groups making decorations for the planters and others responsible for taking photos. January 2014 page 6

7 Local users of the project will acquire new skills to share in the community, and greater understanding of a low carbon future, by participation in the project s activities This outcome is still progressing so partially delivered. Reducing food waste has been a focus since the centre re-opened with groups of parents taking part in cooking with left overs to help them reduce cooked food waste. Creative cooking ideas were also part of the outreach sessions making a decision on what to cook based on what came in from the garden. Lots of spinach recipes were added to the usual menu. Our weekly parent & child group now weigh their waste every week and take pride in knowing it s always a small amount. This outcome will be something that we continue to work on in 2016/17 actively encouraging more growing even in very small spaces, making compost for the garden, healthier travel options and reusing toys and kids clothes. The food on film event was a good way of introducing the challenges we face with climate change and accessible for kids. Learning & Reflection This project has allowed us to deliver an extended community growing area that is accessible to all ages and abilities. It has also raised awareness within the immediate community and with existing users of the centre about growing food, composting and food waste. When the project started and at application stage the contractors were working to a May 2015 completion date. This was an ideal time to start growing & making carbon savings, then the date started to move and internal delays had a knock on effect on the garden area as it was still part of a fenced off building site. If we had known it would drag on through to October then we could have looked at making the growing area an early priority & having it securely fenced from the rest of the building site area. There would still have been challenges with bringing people to the garden as no toilet or kitchen facilities would have been available. The committee ensured that the contractors were being managed by a local architect with expertise in building refurbishments and they were also fully aware of our CCF commitments. The committee had to accept that some of the delays & then snags were not predictable but there were some issues that were due to poor workmanship e.g. visibility edging on the deck interior sticky tape was used to mark the steps, this lasted about 1 week in the winter rain & now has been replaced with painted lines. Raised beds were built double the size of the others so had to be rebuilt. These all added unnecessary time delays. Our outcomes were based on being able to use the facilities from May 2015, most were focussing on growing, food waste reduction and active travel, with the centre being closed for the first 7mths of the project it has meant that the outcomes could not all be met due to the shorter period of time and season available. Composting & food waste January 2014 page 7

8 p were a challenge due to the council offering to compost garden & food waste so people would see this as already avoiding landfill. There were some really good outcomes from some of the changes we had to make. Working with our local group of visually impaired young adults at the RNIB Pathway day service meant we had to think creatively about growing spaces for people with additional support needs, some in wheelchairs. Looking at what would grow best in a small space and what could be used for lunches. This group started growing and continued through the summer harvesting spinach, cucumbers, courgettes, leeks, onions and cabbage which provided healthy lunches. Enthusiasm for the project meant that staff were then growing at home, donating seeds & plants and asking to expand the growing space. While working on this project we were contacted by Trellis the therapeutic gardening charity who were very interested in this different approach from the usual sensory garden. The food plants were also able to provide a sensory interest but with so much more. The idea for a lunch club was also something that came about during the project and was not part of the original set of outcomes. During the building site period we were able to visit other centres and could see how popular a lunch café could be in bringing people to the centre. We had not considered how long the centre had been closed for and that it would take time to make the community aware of it being up & running again, we needed to raise awareness and bring people back. The plan for the lunch café is to make it part of the Hayfield growing evolution showcasing what can be grown in the garden & eaten, zero food waste with composting & leftover recipes and providing positive social activities in the garden & kitchen. This has been a learning which some projects may find useful if they are starting from scratch or want to introduce something that can then lead on to other activities. The final learning would be to have reviewed our existing equipment ahead of starting the project. The centre had a fully functional kitchen but on reflection the equipment was likely to end up being more costly in the long run and certainly not energy efficient. The cooker required a small repair that was costly, the fridge freezer had been donated and was older and energy inefficient! After doing the food hygiene course we had to change wooden utensils & chopping boards for plastic. Environmental health could have done an advice visit beforehand to give a guide on what would need upgraded before serving food to the public. Thanks to the flexibility of the budget headings CCF kindly helped us reprofile some funds to upgrade to better A rated appliances. January 2014 page 8

9 Finance & Administration Hayfield Management Committee are in a good position with the wide experience on offer from the volunteer committee members. Managing budgets, volunteer recruitment and general management of a charity is something that our secretary, treasurer and chairperson are all skilled in. The one challenge would be the large amount of admin as this project was due to run alongside a Big Lottery funded building refurbishment. Recruitment of a part time project co-ordinator was the solution to spreading the workload and this was done with the assistance & support of our local councillor Judy Hamilton who provided a location & attended the interviews. Fife Voluntary Action provide free job vacancy advertising on their website & newsletter which made recruitment straightforward. The challenge then was bringing our newly appointed project co-ordinator up to speed with both Hayfield and CCF. Day 1 of being employed coincided with the Outcomes & Claims procedure course being run in Stirling so this was an ideal course to attend at the start of the project. This provided the basics for what would be required to monitor the success of the project and to complete claim forms. Highly recommended to any new CCF funded projects. Very quickly the budget management and claim admin were able to be transferred from the very busy secretary to the project co-ordinator. One challenge with the budget was being able to purchase goods & services. Like many charities the bank account requires 2 signatures and the only payment method is a chequebook. No debit cards or internet banking can be used with a 2 signature account. This meant in many cases staff or volunteers having to spend their own money to then get an invoice to claim back the funds. This is not just a challenge with the CCF budget but a wider issue for the community centre as a whole so the committee are looking at any other ways that would make purchases easier. Buying online is often cheaper than over the counter so using the budget wisely means this is often the preferred route. The planned monthly spend did not happen due to the delays described above and towards the end of the project we were rushing to catch up on things that would have been purchased much earlier. Having no space to store any equipment before the tool shed arrived meant that anything new had to be kept safe at various home locations depending on who had space. The original budget did require some adjustments with kitchen equipment & compost being headings we underestimated. Due to the closure period we had lower utility bill costs but overall the budget was very close to what was needed just timing being the challenge as described already. This experience of applying for funding, managing a budget and claiming funds has resulted in most of the committee and staff being much more comfortable & experienced at tackling possible new funding opportunities. Towards the end of the building refurbishment project some items were raised as needing upgraded but no budget was available to do this. Very quickly the team looked in to what funding might be available and an application to the local council grants team was submitted to cover flooring, January 2014 page 9

10 security and office furniture. This could not have done in the short timescale had their not been experience gained from working with CCF. Legacy The growing project did not get the best start but over the latter months enthusiasm and ideas started to build up along with the weather improving for growing! One area which we would like to develop is to help local people grow at home. This idea originally came about from a community worker asking for ideas to help solve the issue of overgrown unused garden areas. We also had the experience of working with people in wheelchairs and opening up growing by simply building raised beds on legs. To expand the amount of land used for growing would be a great legacy even if it is just a square metre in a back garden, window box or fruit tree. An idea that came from another CCF project was swap events and after a donation of toys for the parent & child group we realised that there were lots of kids toys that could be going to landfill due to being outgrown or no longer a favourite. Plans to focus on a kids clothes and toy swap were agreed and will happen during The more groups that attend the centre the more people see our facilities and ask about the garden and awareness is raised. Rather than focussing on single activity workshops having a lunch café that leads on to a variety of activities may ease people in to taking part in something new. This is also something that we do in Supporting information January 2014 page 10

11 Name of report authors and date it was finalised: Carol Sidey plus committee 21 st April 2016 Activities Grid Please fill in only those activities which relate to your project. More information about all of these activities can be provided in other sections of the report these figures will enable us to collate some overall impacts of the CCF. How many advice/information centres regular drop-in centre, advice surgery etc. - is your project running? How many training sessions where skills and/or information were passed on e.g. composting training, cooking workshops, etc. has your project has held. 20 How many events did your project hold, e.g. information fairs, open days, etc.? Do not include events held by other organisations which you have attended. 1 January 2014 page 11

12 How many staff, volunteers or community members have achieved qualifications through the project e.g. City & Guilds Energy Awareness, Trail Cycle Leader, etc. How many people were directly employed by your project. Tell us the fulltime equivalent (FTE) number of employees (e.g. 3 days per week = 0.6 FTE). Is the project is supporting the development of any long-term jobs which are not dependent of CCF Funding? How many? How many people are actively involved in your project attending groups & workshops, using the project facilities etc.? How many people volunteer their time and energy to keeping the project going don t forget the members of your management committee or board. How many schools are involved in your project? How many community-owned buildings have been refurbished? 1 How many Home Energy Checks or similar energy efficiency reports have been carried out by your project? How many households have been referred on to other agencies or providers (e.g. HES, Green Deal assessor) for further action? How many households installed energy efficiency measures loft, wall or floor insulation, draft-proofing, double glazing etc. as a result of your project? How many households installed green energy generation measures photovoltaic panels, solar thermal panels, air or ground source heat pumps, wood fuelled heating systems etc as a result of your project? How many miles of car journeys have been reduced through the activities of your project? How many square metres (m 2 ) of community growing space (allotments, poly-tunnels, raised beds, community gardens) has your project brought into use? How many tonnes of waste have been diverted from landfill because of the activities of your project? m2 & 40m k g January 2014 page 12

13 How many kwh of energy has been reduced because of the activities of your project? January 2014 page 13