Since 2013 we’ve focused on developing the Gracemount Community Garden, encouraging the local community to get involved in growing and eating locally produced vegetables. Located in one of the most deprived areas of Edinburgh, the walled garden in the grounds of the Gracemount Mansion House has become a space for growing, sharing and learning and a hub of community engagement that is welcoming to all.
In addition to the core work in the garden itself – in which local residents of all ages come together to make it happen - and in partnership with Edinburgh Food Social, we run community lunches, healthy eating workshops with schools and community groups, and outreach work to encourage people in the area to grow more vegetables in their own gardens.
Having a paid, part-time gardener is central to everything we do, from the actual growing and garden maintenance, to volunteer coordination and schools and community outreach. Without this valuable employee much of our work would grind to a halt. Our current funding for this crucial post is coming to an end and we need your support to ensure that the garden still has a gardener.
Please help us to reach our target and continue our work!
Supporting this project will mean we’ll be able to grow a greater variety of vegetables and achieve much higher levels of community engagement. Volunteers will have the opportunity to gain broader range of growing skills and we’ll have more produce and so be able organise more activities using that produce. At the moment, for example, we can no longer grow enough during winter to supply our community lunches and have to buy a vegetable box from elsewhere. Another year and most lunches provided to the community will be able to be be grown on site.
Find out more about Gracemount Grow Stronger on Facebook.
Donation Amounts
We’ve listed some suggested donations but if the exact amount you wish to donate is not listed on this page then please visit the Donate to a park page, choose Park Fund and then type a message starting with "Gracemount Grow Stronger" in the Why did you want to support this park/city fund? field.
TEXT giving
You can now donate to Piggy Bank project by TEXT. Just text the project code (GRGS70) plus an amount to 70070 – for example: 'GRGS70 £5' to donate £5. You can donate £1, £2, £3, £4, £5 or £10. If you wish to Gift Aid your donation please REPLY to the Gift Aid text.
FAQs
Updates
MyParkScotland provides a safe and easy way to make a donation to support this great project.
To make a donation, click on ‘Support Now’ and select your choice of Gift Level. If you are a UK tax payer, selecting a Level which includes Gift Aid means that we can top up your donation at no extra cost to you. Adding Gift Aid typically means that your online donation of, for example, £10 becomes a park investment of £11.53 (after paying platform and management fees). You need to provide your address to enable us to claim Gift Aid.
Gift Aid is a Government scheme which allows charities to increase the value of donations made to them. Gift Aid makes a huge difference to small charities and local organisations, but if they aren’t registered with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator and HMRC, they can’t claim Gift Aid (and many that could claim Gift Aid don’t because they find the process too complicated). At MyParkScotland, we take care of the claim process on eligible donations, so that the Friends and community groups can concentrate on the great work they do in our parks.
We use PayPal to manage online donations and they charge a small platform fee for handling donations. We work hard to keep our fees as low as possible to make sure that as much of each donation as possible is invested in our parks. For donations without Gift Aid, at least 92% of your donation is invested in parks. MyParkScotland is a not-for-profit registered Scottish charity (No. SC045424) and any fees taken go towards covering essential operating costs.
You can find out more information about Gift Aid and MyParkScotland fees in the main Small Print section.
What do you think?