Hull City Farm Launched To Tackle Food Poverty

A new project in Hull is helping to tackle the growing number of people in the city in food poverty.

A 'City Farm' is today being launched on Beverley Road - which'll see those on low incomes growing their own fruit and vegetables.

It's to also help more people to eat healthily and improve mental health.

It'll officially open to the public next month.

Greg Harman is from local charity, Recycling Unlimited, which is developing the scheme along with Hull City Council. He told Viking FM:

"This is generally for people living on lower incomes; we have a lot of people in Hull that are reliant on benefits so they struggle for income and many more people live on minimum wage so they also struggle. With that in mind we have decided to extend the opening hours beyond the standard 9am to 5pm so that people can access the site.

"There are the food banks in the city for people who are struggling, but they can be problematic for people to access and they might be a sense of embarassment. Some people don't like to go to food banks, although they should because eating is a necessity of life, but by growing their own food, there's that sense of pride and achievement thinking that you grew that from scratch.

"It's a combination of giving people something objective to do, it improves mental health and physical health through the actual motor activities but also helps them save money by growing their own food. There are some up and down the country, there are some in Sheffield and London but it's something that is very much needed here in Hull and it's attracted a lot of interest from people."