<p style="margin-bottom:11px"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Choices Community Shop, based in the heart of Irvine, offers food with dignity to local people who are facing food insecurity due to the cost of living crisis. This fund would allow us to prepare healthy, nutricious &quot;ready meals&quot; for individuals removing the worry of the cost of cooking. Given that winter is approaching, families will have to choose whether to heat or cook and by having this offer, it lessens the stress of the worry.</span></span></span></p>

<p>Enhance existing Community Garden&nbsp;on entry to Largs, create new focal point for Seasonal Displays and signage advising of what&#39;s happening in Largs&nbsp;</p> <p>Community garden located at corner of Irvine Road and Googoside Road is a highly visual prominent&nbsp;focal point on the way into central Largs viewed by locals and visitors&nbsp;</p> <p>Garden is looked after and maintained by Community Council and brings a great deal of happyiness and wellbeing to those driving or walking past</p> <p>In recent years Seasonal Displays have significantly added to the visual impact : Chistmas tree &amp; snowman, Easter bunny &amp; chick, Halloween witch,cats &amp; bats,&nbsp;Rememberance poppy and Viking warriers&nbsp;&nbsp;- Intent is to provide an enhanced display area by moving existing hanging basket frame and installing new metal frame to secure displays onto as well as installing ducting for lighting cables and slabs for easy access to display&nbsp;area</p> <p>In addition install signage to promote Largs Community Council and notify public of &quot;What&#39;s Going On&quot; in Largs thoughout the year (sign to have changeable notice board section)</p>

<p>The Garnock Valley Allotment Association ( GVAA ) was established in 2009 to allow local people to start up a plot for the purpose of growing their own food and improving their life through horticulture.The cost of living crisis and increased focus on healthy lives means it is more improtant than ever to grow your own. Our membership of over 80 people is made up from Garnock Valley residents and we actively encourage and advertise for others to join. Our committee is made up of members volunteering their time to maintain and improve the site.</p> <p>The GVAA has strong links with the local community. Communal growing space is provided for local community groups such as Cafe Solace and Spike Wheat Scots. Additionaly local schools such as St Bridgets Primary and Garnock Academy are regular visitors to the site growing fruit and vedge, learning about horticulture and completing maintenance tasks. All members are encouraged to donate excess stock such as potatoes, onions, carrots, rhubabrb, herbs, lettuce, turnips etc etc&nbsp; to the local community. We would like to extend this service by producing and distributing honey made from our recently introduced bee colony.</p>

<p>Our aim is to allow people from our community to access food with dignity. We are looking to support 250 households access food with dignity through our community larder, This will no doubt be a relief to many working households who are struggling with the rising cost of living and who many do not qualify for extra help. The community larder has no criteria, so anyone can use it when struggling, we help those most in need through referrals from housing associations, CHAP, money matters, social services and community link workers.&nbsp;We offer a range of food that all members can access and choose what they need the most as a top up on their weekly shop. This can make the difference of eating themselves, feeding their children or even providing the basic hygiene products. As the winter months start to creep in we also find that people are having to choose between heating and eating, This puts a huge strain on any household and we endevour to help those members by allowing them to free up money they save from accessing the larder and being able top up gas and electricity.</p>

<p>Largs Museum has a wonderful collection of Art, Artifacts, Photographs and Postcards, many of which are over 100 years old.&nbsp; &nbsp;<br /> <br /> It is important that these collections be digitized&nbsp;so&nbsp;they&nbsp;can be made readily available to the local community without placing any undue stress on the originals many of which are fragile.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> All of&nbsp;the musuem&#39;s collections relate to our local heritage such as artifacts, events, people and&nbsp;places.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>As an independent museum run by volunteers we are funded mainly by donations from visitors to the museum.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>The She Shed is a safe, friendly place to make friends, share and learn new activities, or just pop in for a cuppa and a chat. Here to support and enhance the well-being of the women in our community.</p>

<p style="margin-bottom:11px"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="background:#fdfdfd"><span style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:13.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Lato&quot;,sans-serif"><span style="color:#222222">The Vennel Friends Discovery Group meet weekly in the Vennel Gardens Community Engagement Hub and helps older people come together to meet new people and try a whole host of activities.&nbsp; </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="background:#fdfdfd"><span style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:13.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Lato&quot;,sans-serif"><span style="color:#222222">Our group is open to anyone over the age of 50. &nbsp;We participate in a wide range of activities that promote the health and wellbeing of our group members. The group provides a safe and welcoming place for older people to connect socially which helps to combat loneliness and isolation.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="background:#fdfdfd"><span style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:13.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Lato&quot;,sans-serif"><span style="color:#222222">We are applying for funding to enable our group members to experience the positive mental health and social benefits of going to the theatre and having afternoon tea in Glasgow.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif">Friends of Trindlemoss and Bourtreehill and Broomlands Community Association would like to hold&nbsp;events on the 5th and 6th of April 2024 just after Easter. The events would be multiculture event to welcome the new Scots to our country.&nbsp; A celebration of the new Scots moving into&nbsp;the area The two organisations would like for the people of Ayrshire to sample the foods from different cultures for the Syrian Shawarma, Manakish, Falafel to name a few&nbsp;the Afghanistan national dish of Kabuli pulae, Ashak Dumplings the Polish dishes like schabowy, mushroom and cabbage pierogi or sernik and Ukrainian dishes like borshch,varenyky, chicken kyiv not forgetting our own good old Scottish food getting the haggis tatties and neeps, scotch pies, Cullen skink. We want to offer the people of Ayrshire and the new Scots two&nbsp;afternoons of free fun having bouncy castles and fun fairs at both events so the children and adults have fun candyfloss, popcorn also market stalls selling arts and hand-crafted wares. we also want to include a canny cooker demonstration.</span></span></p>