Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
You don’t need a garden to grow anything, wellies or milk jugs can be a base
Grant helps Co Antrim group Eco Tots – Eat It, Grow It flourish
teach the children where their food comes from, things like potatoes, scallions and different herbs. “That is where Lidl came in, they helped us make our celebration really special and brought a chef in and we used the food we had grown. “The money also helped us buy more supplies and equipment.” The donation has created more opportunities for the group to expand what they do and enabled more families to get involved. Margaret added: “We can show young people and their parents and grandparents how simple it is to grow your own food. “During their time with us they will also go away with their own plants to bring on which encourages people. “The peas we grow are a treat and we have a few apple trees and we want to get some more fruit trees. “There can be up to 24 or more in a session, parents included, so we really needed more supplies. “I would like to use more of the money for a watering system of some kind to gather water and find a way of not wasting it. We also need more compost.”
Eco Tots – Eat It, Grow It meets up on a Thursday from April onwards when plants can be potted before blooming in August. The group started three years ago after talks on nature progressed to wanting to get in touch with growing their own food. The initiative has been supported by staff at the leisure centre, including Play Zone manager Gayle Millar and biodiversity officer Lindsay Houston. Margaret added: “We had no idea we were getting the money and we got £5,000 in total. “Every time I think about it I smile to myself, it means so much. “The project is getting the children interested and whenever we are teaching the kids, we are teaching the parents as well. “We just show how simple it is to grow anything on your own, you don’t have to have your own garden, you can turn wellington boots or milk jugs into your growing base. “There’s a solution for everything. “Young and old leave wanting to do things like this for themselves. “I find it brings generations together, children and their grandparents can have this in common. It brings it back to the older generation who say they remember doing similar things with their parents. I do find the parents are very interested. The programme is open to everyone and runs on Thursdays from 10am to 11.30am. Speaking about Lidl’s contribution, Margaret added: “It is amazing they care so much for the community and I can not get over it. “I think it is wonderful they are giving back so much.” Conor Boyle, regional director at Lidl Northern Ireland, said: “We have received incredible support in Northern Ireland since we opened our first store and this is our way of giving back. “It gives us great pleasure to re-launch Lidl Community Works as we have clearly seen how our communities have flourished with the support we have been able to offer in the last few years.” Customers are being invited to nominate groups or projects in their area that could benefit by downloading a form via www.lidl-ni.co.uk. They can also call into a local Lidl store to pick up a form or cut out the nomination form on the left and submit in store. The deadline for applications is June 25, 2017. Customers in each store across Northern Ireland then have the opportunity to decide from a shortlist of three which group or project should receive a £4,000 investment with the two runners-up each receiving £1,000.