To mark World Hunger Day on Sunday 28th of May, Lewisham local is launching a new funding programme for Foraging, Food Growing and Cooking Activities. The fund is aimed at community growing projects around the borough to encourage local people to engage with foraging, growing and cooking activities by providing small grants of up to £325 to run activities and workshops. It could be a foraging trail in a park, cooking with foraged ingredients, showing people what grows in their community garden or giving foraging and growing tips.
About the Foraging, Food Growing and Cooking Activities Small Grant 2023
Following feedback from growing projects in the borough and from our Foraging, Food Growing and Cooking Activities Small Grants in 2022, we will be giving applicants more time to apply for grants and deliver projects. We will also support in marketing and communications for successful projects to increase their visibility and we are providing more funds to meet increased costs for project delivery.
There are six grants of up to £325 from a total fund of £1950 available to community groups and charitable organisations to deliver additional foraging, food growing and cooking activities/workshops.
We would like to encourage organisations to apply that work with communities that experience inequity or whose members face barriers to participation in food growing and/or projects that address related issues. For example, organisations that work with communities that experience racial inequity, areas where there are high levels of deprivation, people who are educationally or economically disadvantaged, disabled people (including those with physical and mental impairments that have a long term impact on the quality of life). This may include organisations that grow or plan to grow cultural foods, work on anti-racism, grow food to give and work with workshop leaders from marginalised communities.
These examples are not exhaustive, and your organisation may work with communities who experience inequity and/or barriers to participation in multiple areas.
Lewisham Local is the host of Good Food Lewisham, a network of people who are passionate about transforming the local food system in Lewisham. To support this area of work, and based on previous well-received food growing related small grants programmes, Lewisham Local is releasing funds to support the programme.
Programme aims:
- Increase the number of food growing/foraging/community cooking activities in Lewisham by supporting organisations to host additional activities
- Increase the number of and diversity of people involved in these activities
- Encourage people who would not usually get involved in these activities to participate e.g. people on low incomes, people from certain communities
- Increase the visibility and awareness of local community food growing and related initiatives
- Increase knowledge and skills in this area
- Encourage links between projects and community connections
(photo of children making bread at an AFRIL activity 2022)
Eligibility Criteria
Criteria for Organisations
- A constituted group with a committee of 3 or more people not related to each other, and a bank account in the name of the organisation that meets on a regular basis (at least three times per year)
- Registered charity, with a board of trustees
- Charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
- Not-for-profit company such as a Company Limited by Guarantee or a Community interest company (CIC). CICs or companies limited by guarantee will be asked to provide copies of their Community Interest Statement, details of the Asset Lock included in the Memorandum and Articles of Association and a copy of the latest annual community interest report and provide evidence that there are a minimum of three unrelated directors with no one director with more than 50% control)
- Community benefit society
- Unconstituted groups without a bank account in their name can apply to offer a project but must find a local host organisation, to host the money and cover insurance and policies.
- Organisations must have public liability insurance and an organisational bank account.
- Organisations and groups must have a safeguarding policy and appropriate checks if working with children and/or vulnerable adults.
- Organisations should have a risk assessment associated with the proposed project or a health and safety policy.
For groups who need support in policy development or governance, please contact us at funding@lewishamlocal.com to see how we can help.
Criteria for projects
- Organisations must be based in Lewisham and activities/workshops must take place in the London borough of Lewisham or borders (for example if the park or garden is on the border of Lewisham but has a lot of visitors from Lewisham), as long as it mainly benefits people who live/work/study etc. in Lewisham. We are looking for geographical spread around the borough.
- Workshops/Activities must take place between Monday 17th of July and Sunday 3rd September, and include a foraging, food growing or cooking with foraged/own grown ingredients element
- Workshops/Activities must include an educational aspect with participants learning about picking, growing and/or cooking with local food.
- Groups must provide information to Lewisham Local on the scheduled activities to promote through our network
- Organisations must source their own workshop facilitator
- Organisations are encouraged to work with and promote Good Food Lewisham and the Lewisham Growing Network (a network of community growing spaces being developed by Lewisham Local and partners) at events and more generally.
What can I apply for?
- Workshop facilitation (we encourage groups to work with local and/or people from marginalised groups)
- Event space hire
- Workshop/event resources (such as seeds, plants, tools)
- Printing publicity
- Refreshments (ideally healthy, sustainable, local etc. rather than from a supermarket)
- Travel expenses if necessary
- Project Coordination
Application form (grants portal version)
Lewisham Local is now accepting applications through our new grants portal. The link to the application form is here: https://www.lewishamexchange.co.uk/s/applicationform?FPID=a1U4J000000FQKP
When you clicked the link and start your application you will need to complete details of your project name, organisation name, charity registration number or company registration number and your contact details,
When you then press next you will be sent an email from Get Involved – Lewisham Local with a link where you can view your application, save your progress and return to your application up until the deadline date of Sunday 2nd July 2023 – 11.59pm. (Please check your junk/spam folder for this email)
Once you have completed your application and have submitted it you will receive an email from Lewisham Exchange Site Guest User confirming receipt of your application. (Please check your junk/spam folder for this email)
If you have any issues/questions about the grant or application form, please contact funding@lewishamlocal.com
Application Timeline
- Sunday 28th of May 2023 – Applications Live
- Applicants Q&A (TBC) – Get to know more about the grant with Helen and Justin from Lewisham Local
- Sunday 2nd July 2023 by 11.59pm – Deadline for Applications
- Monday 10th July – Applicants Notified
Next Steps
- Lewisham Local will be in touch within seven working days of the application deadline to confirm if your application has been successful
- Complete a Terms and Conditions and Bank Details form and return along with a copy of your organisation’s public liability insurance, health and safety and safeguarding policy
- Upon receipt of the required documents Lewisham Local will arrange for a BACS transfer of the award within seven working days
- Successful projects will be asked to share their event details for Lewisham Local to promote via Good Food Lewisham and on their website
- Funded activities take place between Monday 17th of July and Sunday 3rd September
- Organisations will be asked to complete a short, straight forward monitoring report to be completed by Sunday 1st October 2023
Monitoring
Organisations will be asked to complete a short monitoring report on completion of the activity. You can find the questions here. Projects funded will be asked to keep a record of participant numbers, keep a record of receipts as evidence of how funds were spent, and any publishable photos or quotes from the activity.
Application Form (Word Version)
Should you prefer to apply by completing an application using a word document, please email funding@lewishamlocal.com to request a form. In that case, please send your final application form to funding@lewishamlocal.com.
We encourage you to write and save your answers in a word document so you have a record of your responses and check word limits for each question where this is needed.
Please see the questions below.
We do acknowledge that this is a small grant and are aware of the challenges organisations face in completing multiple applications. We aim to be a fair and equitable funder and make our grant as accessible as possible to grassroots organisations. Therefore, for this grant we encourage organisations who may not have established fundraising capacity within the organisation to apply.
Application Questions
The project
1. Project name
2. Organisation name
3. Charity Registration (if applicable)
4. Company Registration (if applicable)
5. Contact name
6. Contact email address
7. Does your organisation have public liability insurance? (Y/N)
8. Does your organisation have a safeguarding policy? (Y/N)
9. Does your organisation have a health and safety policy? (Y/N)
10. Does your organisation have an organisational bank account with at least two unrelated signatories? (Y/N)
11. Briefly tell us about your organisation
The project
12. Full address & post code where activity, project or service will take place (not assessed)
13. How much are you applying for? (not assessed) Maximum is £325.
14. Estimated start date of project (choice to mark not applicable if already running or unknown if funding dependent?) (not assessed)
15. Please describe the project you are requesting funding for? (Required) (not assessed) – Word Limit (50 words)
16. What would you spend the money on? Please give a projected budget for how you would use the money in the Budget Spreadsheet. Provide a breakdown of costs and all money that is accounted for as much as possible. (Assessed) – Word Limit (2000 characters).
17. What do you hope to achieve with this funding? (assessed) – Word Limit (2000 characters)
18. What activities/activities would you like to provide through the grant and when? (assessed) – Word Limit (2000 characters) .
19. Please explain the need you’ve identified and what evidence you have to demonstrate this need? (assessed) – Word Limit (2000 characters)
20. Who will benefit from this project and how? Please include estimated numbers of individuals directly and indirectly benefitting from this project (assessed) – Word Limit (2000 characters)
21. What risks have you identified and how would you seek to minimise these risks? (assessed) – Word Limit (2000 characters)
22. Is there anything else you would like to tell us that you haven’t had an opportunity to do so? (not assessed) – Word Limit (2000 characters)
For more information about our work and support:
To connect with Good Food Lewisham, a network of people passionate about transforming the local food system in Lewisham visit their website and sign up to their mailing list.
You can read about our previous small grants programme for foraging, food growing and cooking here: Mass Foraging and Food growing activities for World Food Day – Impact Report (goodfoodlewisham.org)
Ongoing Support for Community Food Giving Projects
Lewisham Local offers a variety of support to food giving groups via:
- Local Food Partnership Coordinator– helen@lewishamlocal.com
- Support with additional fundraising – karen@lewishamlocal.com
- One to one support for food projects– laura@lewishamlocal.com
- Support to find volunteers – bettina@lewishamlocal.com
- Incorporate digital access support – don@lewishamlocal.com
Fundraising resources can be found here: Funding – Lewisham Local, Friday Fundraising Club and through the Fundraising Development Manager- Equalities
Lewisham Local will promote all funded projects via: Good Food Lewisham and the Lewisham Community Directory as well as in newsletters to local community groups, volunteers and businesses and social media where appropriate.
Successful projects will be encouraged to engage with Lewisham Local’s programmes and provide peer support to other grant recipients as capacity allows. You can find current training, events and resources at www.lewishamlocal.com.
Data Protection
In completing this form, you understand that Lewisham Local has a requirement to process your personal data.
Lewisham Local will only ever process your personal data where it has a clear lawful basis for doing so in full compliance with data protection legislation – UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act (2018).
We will always ensure security and confidentiality of your personal data.