Marks Spencer today marks the start of the third year of its successful partnership with the environmental charity Groundwork by supporting and confirming a substantial grant towards the development of our north plot community grow you own scheme.
The Greener Living Spaces initiative is funded by the profit from the 5p* M&S charges for food carrier bags. Marks & Spencer has been charging 5p* for food carrier bags in all of its UK stores since May 2008 with the aim of encouraging customers to reduce the number of bags they use. Since then the initiative has:
• reduced M&S food carrier bag usage by 81% from 464 million in 2006/07 to 89 million in 2009/10
• raised £3.6m for Groundwork, which has:
o funded 79 ‘Greener Living Spaces’ projects – excluding the 20 new projects announced today.
o engaged over 10,000 people in local project activity, and a further 1,115 M&S employees.
o improved 562,826 m² of redundant or under used land across the UK, and maintained a further 201,808 m², equivalent to 139 and 50 football pitches respectively.
We would like to thank our project partners, including NHS Cumbria, Furness Locality Healh Improvement Team and Groundwork for all of their support, working in partnership to help secure this successful grant for the development of the north plot community grow your own scheme. It is very much appreciated.
We believe that, among the main health benefits of such as scheme would include; increased opportunities for physical activity, improved mental health and well being and the increased availability of fresh food. We also hope that by working in partnership with health organisation involved in both the mental health and disability sectors it will help to reduce the stigmatisation and isolation that both those suffering with mental health conditions and those with disabilities can feel.
It would also provide an additinal resource for the local community and enhance our other adjacent development - the Green Heart Den.
Julian Smith of Groundwork North East said: “We are delighted to be working alongside Marsh Street Arches and Garden CIC and local residents in their ongoing efforts to make productive use of the derelict land on their doorstep. The development of the North Plot as a community food growing initiative is a tremendous opportunity and the ‘Greener Living Spaces’ grant has been the catalyst for the project. We are building on the tremendous success of the adjacent Green Heart Den project, which created an urban oasis in the heart of residential Barrow. This was a model project demonstrating how a local community can bring together and mobilise local partners to take collective action to improve the quality of their lives. We expect this second phase of activity to be just as successful and the opportunity to develop the site to incorporate opportunities for local food production adds a further exciting dimension to the project.”
If you would like more information about the "Greener Living Spaces" intitiative, please visit the Marks and Spencer website here.
You can find out more about Groundwork by visiting their website here
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