Mental Health charity to transform former council site in Egremont

Cumbrian mental health charity and organic farming enterprise, Growing Well, will expand to a third site thanks to funding support from Copeland Community Fund, The National Lottery Community Fund and the NDA, announced today.

Growing Well will take over the old Beck Green Nurseries in the centre of Egremont, tansforming it into a market garden that will supply fresh vegetables direct to the local community. The funding package from the three major funders, totalling over £600K, will also support the running costs of the charity’s therapeutic horticulture service over the next three years.

Growing Well in Egremont aims to help 100 people a year across West Cumbria recover from mental health difficulties by attending the service on one day a week for up to a year.

Under the supervision of experienced therapeutic growers and mental health support staff, beneficiaries, who can be referred by GPs, other health services, or themselves, can rebuild confidence, learn new skills, benefit from peer support and be helped to achieve their goals, such as returning to employment or education.

The site will also supply 100 weekly veg boxes to the local area. 50 of these weekly boxes, which each contain a minimum of eight seasonal vegetable or fruit items all grown on the Beck Green site, will be sponsored or subsidised so they can be accessed by low income families.

Growing Well Chief Executive Mary Smith said: "We are thrilled to bring our unique model to a third site in Cumbria, which will open up our service to an entirely new community in need.

"We are particularly delighted that we can tackle mental ill health through our intervention and we’ll also be able to offer nutritious fruit and vegetables to those families in the area who might not otherwise be able to afford them. Deprivation is one of the key contributors to mental ill health. Transforming a redundant, town centre site for public benefit presents a huge opportunity for the town of Egremont but we’ll also be welcoming people from right across West Cumbria.

"There's a huge mental health need over here, and statistics recently published have shown that there's been quite a spike in suicides, which would suggest people are not getting help at the point they need it.

"It's about getting completely immersed in the horticultural aspect of what we do, being part of a busy, thriving enterprise. We're putting out tonnes and tonnes of organic fruit and veg a year, it's a real life scenario."