Council's Climate Action section trains community mentors on growing produce

Meath County Council held a community garden event at Claremont Stadium recently to train community mentors on growing food.

The 'Train the Trainer Event— Sustainable Food from Linear to Circular' was hosted by the council's Climate Action section in Claremont Stadium

The training is the first in a series of events to train community mentors to grow food and pass this knowledge on to the community groups they work with, promoting awareness of eco-friendly food sourcing, composting, and creating sustainable gardens. It follows on from the council's previous Eliminating Food Waste Workshop. Those who attended the community garden event received training on how to prepare seed beds with demonstrations carried out at the newly created Community Garden at Claremont Stadium.Led by trainer Michelle Green from Benton Eco Solutions, attendees planted a collection of autumn and winter seeds and bulbs in the newly established garden.

Prosper Meath, Youth Work Ireland, The Simon Community, The National Learning Network, HSE, and Meath Partnership were among the groups that engaged with the training.

Afterwards, Michelle conducted a compost awareness workshop on best practices in compost application and demonstrated how food waste can be converted into compost, outlining the many benefits it can provide to gardens. At the end of the event, attendees were provided with composting caddy bins and a Grow It Yourself Garden Kit from GIY

This event was a collaboration between Meath Co Council’s Climate Action Section and was supported by Meta.

Meath County Council would like to thank all involved and all those in attendance, with special thanks to Navan Men’s Shed for creating the Community Garden, Mayor of Navan Cllr Eddie Fennessy for his assistance with the event, Michelle Green for providing insightful and engaging training, and the staff at Claremont Stadium for hosting the event.

Cllr Fennessy thanked the council "for organising an excellent 'Grow Your Own' training session in Navan."

"We had representatives from a number of local community groups in attendance which was great. What we learned will be used to develop a number of projects across the town.

"Food waste in landfill is a huge driver of greenhouse gas emissions. Small changes in how we source and treat our food can make a huge difference to the environment around us.

"The benefits of planting and composting needs to be more widely taught. A good place to start would be our primary schools."

As part of Meath County Council’s Climate Action Plan 2024-2029 (which can be viewed on www.meath.ie), the council will support the creation of community gardens through partnership with local communities. Following the success of this recent event, Meath County Council’s Climate Action Section aims to go to each of Meath’s Decarbonising Zones to carry out similar projects to promote sustainable food across the county.