Garnock Valley Allotment Association Bee Colony and Honey Production.

Bees are pollinators. Pollinators are vital for life on earth as we know it, without them we wouldnt have potatoes, strawberries, tomatoes, coffee,chocolate, cotton or honey. However Bee populations are in danger of extinction due to a number of factors such as disease, habitat loss and the impact of pesticides. Organic food production, which is practiced at the Garnock Valley Allotment Associiation is ideal for a Bee colony as it creates a safe haven for the Bees to survive. Please Bee kind and vote for the GVAA Bee Colony Project.

Costs

New Bee Hive - £250-00

Bee Suits- £250.00

New Equipment to extract and distribute Honey- £300

Training and Education eg Ayr Beekeeping Course- £200

Our volunteers and members regularly attend other events promoting the Community Garden and we would like to provide warm fleeces/ waterproof jackets with our logo. Also advertising material to help promote the amazing work our volunteers do. 

We have two bee hives which are now producing honey. Two of our trustees self fundeed a bee keeping course and bought their own suits. We would like to purchase two additional suits to allow members of the community who would like to learn about bee keeping and see first hand what happens within the hive.

We would like to trial soup packs made up with the produce from the garden . These would include everything to take home to make soup including a recipe. Two of our volunteers recently attended a beginners cooking class at a Radio City initiative and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, gaining so much confidence in preparing and cooking simple wholesome meals.

Fleeces/ jackets £470, Bee Suits £110, Advertising banners and leaflets £200, Soup packs £150,  various gardening gloves £70

Dalry Community Sports Club have a number of key priorities which were originally based on increasing the health and wellbeing of our community through various sports and leisure activities. Prior to the pandemic we were also looking at opportunities to help address, both social isolation and food deprivation issues, aligning ourselves with some of the key priorities of North Ayrshire Council and Scottish Government. As part of these priorities we have been operating our Community Larder since Nov 2020, initially as a foodbank during the pandemic, but now aligned with NAC`s Community Larder model, where customers pay £4, for a selection of items, and also a variety of free short dated / best before items. To complement this, we opened our warm space throughout the winter period, but have actually kept this going all year now. Once people have visited the larder, they can then have a hot / cold drink and a filled roll / biscuit. Both the Community Larder and the Warm Space have allowed both individuals and families the opportunity to meet and socialise with other members of the community previously unknown to them. We operate both the Community Larder and the Warm Space on a Wednesday night and a Saturday morning. Since the cost of living crises started, we have seen the numbers of people attending our Community Larder steadily increase. We are now seeing more families attending these, and more people who are working. To support these activities, it has put a strain on the commitment of our volunteers, but also on the stress and strain of constantly looking for funding opportunities to support these. Local businesses have been great here, where we work in partnership with Tesco, ASDA, Bookers, Co-op, Irvine`s Bakery, Lidl and Reid`s Food Services, who supply us with a combination, of either free short dated / best before items, or items at discounted prices. Unfortunately over the last 12 months, we have seen how the rising costs have impacted on our funding, where it doesn`t buy as much. To help us get the best value for money, and bulk buy when the prices are good, we require the purchase of an addition upright freezer and pastries storage. We further require a labelling machine so that we can mark up items of food that we pick up free, and aprons / fleeces which would help give our volunteers a feeling of identity.

Costings

Polar G-Series Upright Display Fridge 218Ltr Black - £599.98, Lacor Countertop Ambient Food Display 554mm - £239.99, NIIMBOT B1 Label Maker Machine plus additional role - £29.99 + £8.99 = £38.98 &  Aprons / Fleece / Print – cc £120

Within the Garnock Valley there is a substantial amount of families and individuals who live in poverty.  A few years ago, as a charity-based organization, we felt that this is something that we should address and started to look at what we could do to help in our community. The statistics at that time found that 1 in 3 children in the Garnock Valley go to bed without a meal at dinner time. We introduced a community meal where families can get a three course meal for  £2.50 and children can eat free, we also accept referrals through the local authority and other organisations which allows families, and or individuals who are strugling with the cost of living, to eat for free. This has become very popular over the last few years with orders ranging from 55 – 125 individuals. This usually varies depending on what is on the menu that night. As well as a collection service we offer a delivery to those who are unable to get to the building, which gives an apportunity for our trained staff to check in with those who live in isolation. Currently our vegetables for our meals are purchased through a local supplier. We have discussed for some time that it would be more cost effective if we could grow our own vegetables and use these as part of the meal we provide.

Within the Community Hub we support adults with learning disabilities and as part of their daily programme, we could implement a grow your own food activity. This is something that the service users would really enjoy and are currently doing this on a much smaller scale within our garden. The ingredients could be used both for the community meals and when the service user's are making food within the training kitchen, which is where they prepare a meal from scratch to take home to eat.  The positive aspect being the reward for the time spent growing the vegetables/fruit, so that they can enjoy this as well as the most vulnerable people in our community.

We are looking to do more to help the vulnerable in Garnock Valley, by proposing to implement cooking classes for the impoverished. This venture is still in its infancy; however we are keen to develop this.  The food grown within the Polly tunnel could also be used for this project once we have the service up and running.

Polly tunnel - £500

Groundwork -£500

Brass band: £700

Hall hire: £200 (Geilsland Hall)

Choirs (youth): £150 donation schools

Refreshments: £350 (guests, audience and performers)

Parking stewards: £50

First aiders: £50

Admin: £50

Total est: £1550

We will alo have a display relating to green issues from NAC waste management team.

Establishing a Lunch Club £316

New Bingo Machine £200

100th Birthday Party for Resident £110

Christmas Party £110

Hot water urn £74

Catering tea pots £50