Projects are in the money
Garden and soccer school benefit
Two projects based in Rutherglen were celebrating when a national food company dropped by to drop of a cheque.
Fernhill Soccer School and Calderwood Primary Community Outdoor Garden were two of three recipients of the first ever McInvest funding from ready meal manufacturers McIntosh Foods.
The Forfar-based company who are part of the family-owned Strathmore Foods – started the process in May this year.
They whittled applications down to a shortlist of just nine and asked members of the public to vote for the deserving winners.
Amazingly, the two local projects, under two miles apart, were chosen as the medium and large project winners.
Fernhill Soccer School, who picked up the medium award, run sessions for children aged three to 14, and this additional funding has secured their future.
In last week’s Reformer we announced their work was helping to end territorialism between youths in the scheme and neighbouring Castlemilk.
William Hepburn, vice-chairman of the school, said: “The funding will keep the club going for the foreseeable future, keeping the kids in kit and paying for the free fruit and water we give out every week.
“We have up to 70 kids in the club. We’re just trying to keep kids off the street, help them meet other people and give them a start in football – and life.”
Calderwood Primary School are hoping to grow their garden to provide an outdoor learning space for pupils.
Suzanne Stevenson, who is a subgroup leader with the parent council garden project, explained the funding will go towards their long- term goals.
She said: “The garden project has been going on for about two years now, and it has been really hard getting funding. So it’s really great that we’ve started to get some money in.
“The McIntosh funding is going towards the music side of the project – we’re hoping to get outdoor musical instruments so the kids can use the space outside more, and also get the local community involved, too.”
McIntosh Foods decided to run the funding awards to help their loyal community of customers after seeing growth across the business in recent years.
Julie Nisbet, managing director of Strathmore Foods, said: “This project is really appropriate to who we are as a company – we are a family run business and our consumers are very loyal to us, so it’s nice to be able to give something back to them.
“We really wanted to find a way to help the community that has supported us so greatly over the past couple of years.”