Support Growing Better – an urban farm improving mental health

This month Pimp My Cause is featuring Growing Better, a social enterprise dedicated to creating better mental health through growing edible produce.
 
Growing Better’s urban farm in Leeds provides a supportive working environment for people facing a range of mental health challenges. Rob Moores, their founder said, “Being a part of our Growing Better team reduces isolation and stress, improves confidence and self-esteem, provides skills and work experience and encourages peer support. And on a broader level, as urban farmers we want to help build a sustainable, local, independent food ecosystem, reduce food miles, develop innovative and non-toxic ways of growing food and support community growing”.

Growing Better provides different types of engagement for different groups. Their clients can self-refer or be referred by their GPs, counsellors or a third sector organisations.  And they can get involved as ad-hoc volunteers to test the waters or they can join a more structured programme or become an employee. Their structured programmes last six to eight weeks. The participants become part of their operations team. This gives them the chance to learn to grow produce, while they get the support and confidence needed to be ready for full time employment.

Growing Better sells the beautiful micro greens and shoots that they grow to local food businesses and wholesalers. This helps to ensure that they remain a sustainable social enterprise.

To date they have been growing in polytunnels, which has allowed them to grow produce for six months of the year. Growing Better is now running a crowdfunding campaign to raise £20,000 to buy a shipping container and fit it out with the equipment needed to create a hydroponic vertical farm for year round growing.

This exciting new development will allow Growing Better to also provide support and jobs all year round, not just in the traditional growing season, and will ultimately help with the social and work re-integration of hundreds of people with mental health challenges.

Marketing help needed

Growing Better can only achieve their goals if they get their marketing right. You can help them to do this by:

• Promoting their crowdfunding campaign through your social networks.
• Connecting them with opportunities to promote their crowdfunding campaign through the media.
• Supporting the development of their longer term marketing and communications strategy.
• Inviting the Growing Better team to come into your office to present their work and discuss the importance of providing people with mental health challenges with pathways back into work.

If you’d like to support Growing Better please email Anna Mullenneaux, Chief Matchmaker at Pimp My Cause, at [email protected].