Engage’s ‘My-City Allotment’ project has been short-listed for the Tesco Bags of Help project which will be used to create allotments for people who live and work in the city centre and have no access to any space to grow food or plants.

Tesco has teamed up with Groundwork to launch its Bags of Help initiative across England and Wales. The scheme will see three community groups and projects awarded grants of £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000 – all raised from the 5p bag charge. Bags of Help offers community groups and projects in each of Tesco’s 390 regions across the UK a share of revenue generated from the five pence charge levied on single-use carrier bags.

Elaine Cresswell, project manager of  My-City Allotment explained “We are guaranteed £8,000 and will use this money to provide shared growing space, planters, storage, composting and water for residents and businesses on one vacant site in Liverpool city centre.

If the public vote for us in Tesco stores between 27th February to 6th March and we win the first prize of  £12,000, we can create a network of growing spaces between Bold Street and the Baltic.

This will include:

1) Planting fruit trees on walking routes to schools

2) Creating horticultural therapy growing spaces for city centre organisations such as The Brink

3) Supporting food-based social enterprises and start-up businesses such as MY:CO  Shiitake Mushroom growers and Nuts about Milk

4) Greening our city centre with hanging gardens, climbers, sunflowers, strawberries and edible bulbs in grass verges”

Please vote for ‘My City Allotment’ and encourage your friends and neighbours to do the same. Participating stores and further information can be found here

If you want growing space in the city centre or have land that My City Allotment can use, please contact elaine@bluegreenliverpool.org.uk