READERS of this Green Focus column will remember the news shared in the summer of a new Community Fridge launch in Monkton Heathfield.

GREEN FOCUS COLUMN CONTRIBUTED.

It offers local residents the chance to reduce food waste by donating cupboard overstocks and garden gluts which could be shared with other local families, alongside daily collections by a dedicated group of volunteers collecting near to date donations from three local Co-op stores.

As well as the fantastic news that the Community Fridge in just eight months has saved over 12,500kg of food from going to waste (the equivalent of four African Elephants), and that the Fridge has offered a lifeline to struggling residents, the latest update is that a new Community Garden beside the Fridge has recently been created, aiming to provide crops for the volunteer gardeners and to supply the Community Fridge.

After a grant was awarded to expand planting beyond the couple of existing small planting troughs, nearly 40 members of the community came together to create 12 large growing beds from scratch, using grant funded soil and sand, but with cardboard, wood and chippings kindly donated by local businesses.

So far potatoes, carrots and mangetout have been planted and volunteers are growing further crops and herbs from seed at home, ready to plant out in the garden once established.

Also involved in the initiative are pupils from West Monkton Primary School who, thanks to garden volunteer Paul, have been learning about soil and seeding and are nurturing their own plants to be added to the beds as the weather warms up.

A two-tank rainwater harvesting system has been installed from the school’s bin store roof, ensuring that there is always water available as gardeners nurture what they have sown.

The Monkton Heathfield community volunteers were delighted to recently welcome ITV News Westcountry for a live broadcast of their evening programme, which shone a spotlight on these ‘do good and feel good’ initiatives.