As a former allotment owner myself, it’s always good to hear how well this historic public facility is doing in this area. Despite – of course – long waiting lists and the constant threat of losing some sites to commercial development.
I have just heard from Jack Wilkinson of the Bath Allotment Association.
She writes: “I thought you might be interested in a small but significant event happening on next Monday morning (15 July) at 11 am.
The Bath Allotments Association are giving their first donation of surplus food to the Genesis Trust (who are based in Snow Hill) via the charity called Crop Drop.
The idea is simple – we put our surplus crops into a small cupboard and it’s collected by a volunteer from the Trust. It’s part of a scheme being run from several allotments in Bath, including the threatened site up at Combe Down..
We are starting up some microplots – a first for a Bath Council allotment site. The idea is to get people who are on the long waiting list (currently at 46 on this site alone) onto small starter beds so that they can learn a bit more about growing – both the joys and pitfalls – and get to know the site too.”
Thanks Jacky. I know you are all really excited that Claremont Allotments are connecting with the Genesis Life Project at the Gateway Centre for this growing season.
There is more background information about CropDrop on:
The annual report for 2023 is here: https://www.cropdrop.org.uk/end-of-year/2023/
and a little infographic summarising the 2023 activity here:
which shows the start and end dates of each connection and the number of weekly ‘drops’ that occurred ( a ‘drop’ being 4 – 8 supermarket crates full of fresh produce).
