Darkwood Crew get back to their roots
Express: “Over the past year, Darkwood Crew has evolved to being everything for everyone throughout the pandemic.
“When covid struck, it was clear there were a number of things that people needed support with and we were happy to put on those many hats and help wherever we could.
“We identified the needs of people, which at first was food insecurity and then as the pandemic went on it was things like the bingo bus to keep people’s spirits up.
“But because of that, we fell away from what Darkwood Crew was originally about which was improving the local community and the environment.
“But, as things have quietened down now, we are taking the time after a busy year to get back to our roots and do what we set out to do when we started.
“When we saw the Upstream Battle campaign, we thought it would be a fantastic initiative to be involved in.”
Improving the community has always remained an important goal for Terry and the Darkwood volunteers.
Together, they have prevented 15.7 tonnes of food from going to landfill and redirecting it into the community, as well as collected 46 unwanted appliances from homes of residents and redistributing them.
They are now taking to the streets again to start cleaning up litter and tackling issues of flytipping.
They are also hoping to use £ 4,810 from Renfrewshire Council’s Green Spaces Fund to establish a community garden and growing area adjacent to Darkwood Court later this year.
It is hoped this will provide opportunities for both formal and informal learning.
Terry added: “We had been making some real progress in improving the area before covid.
“We don’t want to lose the gains that we had made.
“Some of the things we are doing are