Project Report April 2015- March 2016 Easy Peas-y The Ecology Centre Kinghorn Loch Kinghorn Fife KY3 9YG Tel. 01592 891567 www.theecologycentre.org Easy Peas-y (CCF 3784)
Background 2015 was a certainly challenging year for The Ecology Centre as we were between homes operating from a workshop we created from three old shipping containers at Kinghorn Loch and a rented office in Kirkcaldy for most of the year. Instead of the usual army of volunteer gardeners and visiting school groups, the casual visitor was more likely to encounter a JCB or a hard hat wearing building inspector on the lochside site as our Centre was being built on our newly purchased land. None of this stopped our dedicated team of staff and volunteers working in the community to raise awareness on environmental issues and make a really practical difference in helping local residents to reduce their carbon footprint. With the invaluable support of the Climate Challenge Fund, we simply moved off site and into our community, clearing gardens, making raised beds, constructing greenhouses and generally encouraging more people to grow more food on their own doorsteps. The volunteers brave enough to stay on site (mostly off grid even through the winter) worked tirelessly in the workshop, refurbishing old tools to equip the growing community of new food growers in and around Kinghorn and Burntisland. Climate change was identified in a wide ranging community consultation in 2014 as a high priority issue within the local community so we decided to develop a new project to address this concern with a new, very practical and measurable project. We wanted to take people s ideas around growing local food and help turn them into reality and so the concept of making things Easy Peas-y became our focus. A lack of tools was identified as a common barrier to individuals and community groups so the workshop volunteers started to collect old donated gardening tools and set about making these as good as new and gifting them back to the community. Along with growing more food locally, refurbishing old tools became a main strand of the Easy Peas-y project. Figure 1: Easy Peas-y was initiated in response to climate change concerns Figure 2: Raised beds were constructed over the course of the project Figure 3: The Tool Shed took on the task of collecting and refurbishing garden tools 2. The Ecology Centre: Easy Peas-y end of project report (April 2016)
Growing Food Our aim was to support 30 householders or community groups to grow 720 kg of food, saving food miles and carbon emissions (and money) in the process. Starting in April meant that we had to get off to a quick start to make the most of the growing season. Over the course of the year we helped local 26 residents to either grow food for the first time or significantly increase the amount that they could grow. These ranged from an experienced allotment holder who needed manual help in putting in some new steps to her allotment after suffering from an injury last year slipping on the steep access slope, to an 82 year old great grandmother growing peas in pots by her back door for the first time ever. We also worked with regularly with 2 schools and 6 community groups to help them grow food in their own grounds. Each householder was visited by the Project Manager to identify barriers to people s growing aspirations. A bespoke action plan was then drawn up and Ecology Centre staff, trainees and volunteers carried out the agreed action. Feedback was gathered from householders several months later to determine how effective getting a helping hand was to people growing food and to find out what they had managed to grow. The range of help varied depending on the barriers identified and included: Figure 4: This is the new front garden of a full time carer who is growing food for the first time Clearing overgrown gardens Moving heavy objects Taking green waste to the recycling centre Digging over compacted soil Creating safer access to growing plots Purchase of peat free compost or topsoil Supplying seeds/ seedlings Giving specific growing advice Making and installing raised beds A lack of space Linking growing to wider learning (for schools) Making front garden vegetable patches more attractive Supplying gardening tools Figure 5: Even small spaces were used to grow food Figure 6: Raised beds were constructed using recycled scaffold boards and proved to be very popular- creating growing spaces and training opportunities 3. The Ecology Centre: Easy Peas-y end of project report (April 2016)
We also ran 8 community workshops, on our new site, in schools, local parks and even in a shopping centre. A range of gardening related activities were covered including growing plants from seed, composting, growing food in small spaces and making willow pea supports. Figure 7: A young grower painting up her own salad pot for her garden Figure 8: Out of school club learning how to look after tools Figure 9: Saturday workshop learning how to make willow wigwam pea supports We gave general advice to several local schools but worked particularly closely with Burntisland and Auchtertool Primary schools. Pupils refurbished tools with our workshop supervisor to refurbish tools and build up a stock for themselves. They also worked with the Project Manager and Education team over several sessions to develop their school grounds and participate in environmental education activities exploring the issues around climate change and responsible citizenship. Practical help was also given in the form of repairing a plastic bottle greenhouse, planting up around the playgrounds and moving tonnes of soil into new raised beds. By the end of March, 270 sq metres of new growing space had been established in our community which had produced an estimated 750kg of food in the first year. Some householders enjoyed weighing their produce and recording exactly what they had grown, while others reported in more general terms what they had grown. One family with three young children found it impossible to tell us how many strawberries they had produced, for some strange reason they never made it as far as the scales! Refurbishing Old Tools A lack of gardening tools was identified at the very early stages of Easy Peas-y so the volunteers in the Tool Shed, which is part of the Scottish Men s Sheds network, set about refurbishing hundreds of old gardening tools and giving these out to local gardeners, schools and community groups. We set out to collect enough tool donations to enable the volunteers to refurbish 400 gardening tools for people working on our new site and in their own gardens or grounds. This target was exceeded with a total of 657 refurbished and put back into the community for use while unsafe or unrepairable tools were broken down into components and recycled responsibly. Figure 10: Hundreds of tools were diverted from landfill and taken to the workshop 4. The Ecology Centre: Easy Peas-y end of project report (April 2016)
Highlights The Shedders were so successful in collecting donated tools that they decided to celebrate the end of Easy Peas-y with a huge tool giveaway which was held on the first Saturday of March 2016, just in time to for the growing season. This also solved the storage problem of having so many tools and a glut of tools that volunteers did not have time to fully refurbish and paint/ sharpen, but had been safety checked and declared to be perfectly useable. This was widely advertised through social media and resulted in over 230 people coming along and taking 420 tools away with them. Figure 11: Tools ready for the end of project Big Tool Giveaway Figure 12: social media helped to spread the word- this photo was taken half an hour BEFORE opening Figure 13: Bedrock were just one of the community groups to be given free tools Working with local schools was another highlight. At Burntisland PS, the school community had raised funds to develop a garden in memory of a previous Headteacher. With the support of the Easy Peas-y team they decided to make growing food a real focus and adopted a Living, learning, growing theme for the new garden. Our team worked every fortnight with the school to help start the growing season and offered practical help moving tonnes of topsoil into new raised beds. The transformation was a very rewarding process for our trainees and to be involved in. Figure 14: School garden in April 2015 Figure 16: We were able to give advice on habitat improvement and biodiversity as well as growing food Figure 15: Growing food is now an integral part of the school's outdoor learning Figure 17: School garden in October 2016 5. The Ecology Centre: Easy Peas-y end of project report (April 2016)
Of course, Easy Peas-y was only a small part in the overall efforts across Scotland to reduce carbon emissions through the Climate Challenge Fund. The activities we undertook to contribute towards government goals included: CCF Activities Grid How many advice/information centres regular drop-in centre, advice surgery etc. - is your project running? 6 How many training sessions where skills and/or information were passed on e.g. composting training, cooking workshops, etc. has your project has held. 42 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. 8 How many staff, volunteers or community members have achieved qualifications through the project e.g. City & Guilds Energy Awareness, Trail Cycle Leader, etc. 4 How many people were directly employed by your project. Tell us the full-time equivalent (FTE) number of employees (e.g. 3 days per week = 0.6 FTE). 1.5 Is the project supporting the development of any long-term jobs which are not dependent of CCF Funding? How many? 3 How many people are actively involved in your project attending groups & workshops, using the project facilities etc.? 260 How many people volunteer their time and energy to keeping the project going don t forget the members of your management committee or board. 52 How many schools are involved in your project? 6 How many square metres (m 2 ) of community growing space (allotments, polytunnels, raised beds, community gardens) has your project brought into use? 270 How many tonnes of waste have been diverted from landfill because of the activities of your project? 1.7 6. The Ecology Centre: Easy Peas-y end of project report (April 2016)
What difference did Easy Peas-y make? CO2 outcomes We set out to reduce our community s carbon emissions by 11.6 tonnes by growing food organically and locally. We have calculated that we will have saved 11.2 tonnes over the lifetime of the new growing plots. We planned to do this by creating 250 square metres of growing space. We exceeded this by creating 270 square metres. We know this information is accurate as we measured and recorded the sizes of the raised beds installed and garden areas cleared. We collected (sometimes from accurate notes, sometimes from estimates) feedback about how much produce had been grown by individuals and groups over the project year. The information we gathered indicated that 720 kg of produce was grown, slightly less than using Zero Waste Scotland s accepted production ratios would have suggested, but given that some plots were late in being established and most people were growing for the first time, we are not too concerned about this slight under production. This is also a conservative measure as in some cases as some produce e.g. from fruit trees and shrubs, will not be measurable until the plants have become established enough to produce fruit. Produce grown in Easy Peas-y gardens includes: salad leaves, rocket, spinach, tomatoes, butternut squash, potatoes, turnip, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, apples, plums, pears, strawberries, peas, runner beans, mangetout, pumpkin, onions, shallots, spring onions, herbs, garlic, carrots, raspberries and cucamelon. Figure 18: A front garden mini allotment created in Kinghorn from a disused lawn has inspired other people in the neighbourhood In total 720 kg of food was produced resulting in an estimated carbon dioxide saving over the lifetime of the growing plots of 11.2 tonnes. Figure 19: An impressive variety of fruit and vegetables have been grown (Outcome met) We also intended to reduce carbon emissions by 15.3 tonnes by recycling and refurbishing one ton of unwanted gardening tools. A total of 144 refurbishing sessions were held involving 31 volunteer which clocked up an impressive 4,114 volunteer hours sifting through donations, refurbishing and safety checking tools. In total 657 gardening tools were refurbished and 1,832 kg were refurbished for other purposes or recycled responsibly resulting in a carbon dioxide saving of 6,582kg Total Carbon Dioxide savings= 17,782 kg (outcome exceeded) 7. The Ecology Centre: Easy Peas-y end of project report (April 2016)
Community outcomes Through our activities, we wanted to improve the physical health and wellbeing of participants and reduce social isolation within our community. A total of 43 volunteers were involved in activities growing food on site or refurbishing tools. This is in addition to 120 people involved in Easy Peas-y households and community groups. 100% of volunteers who participated in our evaluation reported an improvement in their physical health and wellbeing and 94 % reported an increase in how socially connected they felt as a result of being involved in activities. This information was mostly gathered through facilitated discussions over various tea break times. Our team of kitchen volunteers started making community lunches once a week, using fresh produce grown on site where possible. These started later than planned due to the delays to moving into our new building which was delayed from June to the end of October. Due to the late occupation of the new kitchen it was not possible to involve volunteers with limited cooking skills in the kitchen to learn from experienced volunteers or to produce recipe cards, but this is something that we are still keen to do next year. Despite the late start, kitchen records report that 466 lunches were prepared and served between October and the end of March, and a further 23 lunches were delivered to a volunteer unable to attend due to undertaking a course of chemotherapy. Figure 20: Kitchen team volunteers ready to serve Two members of staff and two volunteers undertook Level 2 Award in Food Safety for Catering training as part of the skills development for the kitchen team. New policies on food hygiene have been written and implemented and The Ecology Centre is now registered as a food business with Fife Council. Figure 21: Using produce grown on site whenever possible Figure 23: Kitchen diary providing useful monitoring & evidence This will further help with the sustainability of our organisation as we are now looking to build on this training and experience and are currently looking at the feasibility of organising a pop up café once a month to generate unrestricted Figure 22: Homemade soup- always a winner income. We have also discovered that some of our regular volunteers with protected characteristics particularly enjoy the routine of chopping vegetables and we will build this into future developments. (outcome partially met) 8. The Ecology Centre: Easy Peas-y end of project report (April 2016)
We worked closely with Burntisland and Auchtertool primary schools and both schools now have well established growing areas in their school grounds. Between the two schools we worked with a total of 64 pupils and 6 teachers. Feedback from staff and pupils indicated a significant increase in awareness of food miles and composting in particular. One teacher commented Never in a million years would we have been able to do this (grow food) without your help. As word of our project spread, we also gave advice and provided tools to several other schools and built compost bins for Aberdour primary school and four large raised beds for the Dept. of Additional Support in Balwearie High School. (outcome met) Figure 24: Raised beds made and installed in Balwearie High School Figure 25: Busy little hands as pupils learned how to care for their tools Figure 26: Auchtertool PS's revamped bottle greenhouse Reflection and Learning Overall the staff, volunteers and management committee are very pleased with the achievements of Easy Peas-y project. Not only did the project contribute significantly to reducing carbon emissions, it also resulted in several other benefits. Our local community was strengthened through an increased awareness of food production and recycling and improved health and wellbeing amongst participants. It was also very beneficial to our organisation as we were able to continue our work with the community and with groups working off site while our new site and building was under construction. We became aware how important practical support is in changing people s behaviour. Many people reported to us that they had intended to grow food but often simple barriers like not having a car to take garden clearings to the recycling centre or not physically being able to move heavy things into place were stopping them. Having someone else interested in their efforts also meant that they were more likely to see their plans through. As an organisation we will take this on board and appreciate more that giving relevant information, advice and raising awareness is not always enough to change behaviour. We gathered information in several different ways including formal exit interviews with volunteers and trainees, group discussions, recording casual comments and by making phone calls to complement the hard evidence recorded through our volunteer sign in sheets, kitchen team diary, visit notes/ action plans for recruited growers and workshop tool logs. 9. The Ecology Centre: Easy Peas-y end of project report (April 2016)
We introduced new data collecting methods like weighing scrap metal before taking it to the recycling centre and measuring the sizes of raised beds to calculate growing space. We also had more informal but facilitated discussions over cups of tea which volunteers were more comfortable with rather than more formal methods of gathering feedback. We found that no single method could give us all the information we needed but by bringing together different techniques we could build up a robust picture of the difference Easy Peas-y was making. We have also learned not to underestimate the time that this all takes. Figure 27: Workshop log book Our funding Our grant totalled 46,136 and we were able to put the whole of this sum to good use in delivering the project outcomes. A small underspend in volunteer/ travel expenses arose due to us doing more work in the community and less work on site due to the delay in being able to move into our new premises. This was diverted to cover the cost of training for the Project Manager to build up our project management skills and capacity within our organisation. In addition to covering the cost of two staff members whose roles were changed by the management committee to reflect the needs of the project, one new Education member of staff was recruited. This new member of staff has now been taken on by The Ecology Centre and co-ordinates our pool of sessional educators. Once we appreciated the detail required for making a claim, we found the process to be straightforward and the CCF staff to be very helpful and efficient. Figure 28: BOSS club delivering their verdict on growing food This report was compiled by Jo Hobbett (Project Manager) with the invaluable input of Karen Wakefield (Finance Officer), Mark Douglas (Workshop Supervisor), Claire Reid (Education Officer) and Robert Paterson (Operations Co-ordinator), The Ecology Centre s volunteer Management Committee, the team of volunteers in the Kitchen Team, the Tools Shed volunteers, gardening volunteers, site trainees and staff at Burntisland and Auchtertool primary schools. 10. The Ecology Centre: Easy Peas-y end of project report (April 2016)