Waterways and wellbeing charity, Canal & River Trust, has donated young vegetable plants to local people living in Birmingham to enable them to grow their own produce during the Covid 19 lockdown.
The plants, which were grown by Trust colleagues and volunteers with a view to them being planted along the Birmingham Canal Navigation in central Birmingham, have been donated to community business Share Shack ‘EAT MAKE PLAY’ where they have been distributed to vulnerable families and older people in the local area.
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The plants can be planted at home in the garden or in small containers on balconies or in window boxes and will help communities to grow their own fresh veg, providing delicious home-grown food to those most in need during the current crisis.
The crops, propagated by the Trust in its canal-side greenhouse in central Birmingham, include a wide variety of veg, such as lettuce, rocket, herbs and beans as well as heritage varieties of carrots and tomatoes.
Keith Grubb, from the Canal & River Trust, said: “We initially planted the green house so we could grow plants for our flowerbeds along the canal in Birmingham as well as provide vegetables boxes for our colleagues and the local foodbank.
“With the current lockdown and social distancing measures preventing that, we thought it would be nice to do something to help support our local communities rather than see these veggies go to waste.
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“So far we’ve had a fantastic growing season so we are hoping we can keep on donating until the current restrictions have ended. There is something lovely about being able to grow your own food from scratch and we are just delighted we are able to help people in our community at a time when everyone needs to pull together.”
For more information on the Canal & River Trust including how you can volunteer or donate money to support our work visit www.canalrivertrust.org.uk
