Kennedy Way Community Garden gets special visit from NHS

A COMMUNITY garden welcomed a group of special visitors to see how it is progressing four months after opening.
Trish Stevenson, chief operating officer of NHS Property Services, along with other NHS officials visited the Kennedy Way Community Garden in Clacton on Wednesday.
Staff and volunteers from Community Voluntary Services Tendring (CVST), which runs the site, gave the visitors a tour of the Men’s Shed, Polytunnel and flowerbeds.
Nicola Vella, volunteer co-ordinator at CVST, said: “The officials from NHS Property Services came to see how the community garden is getting on since it opened in October last year.
“I mentioned how the Community Garden as a whole is making a difference to our local residents and volunteers.
“It’s busy and vibrant, with our volunteers ensuring that everyone is greeted with a smile and introduced to all projects within the Community Gardens.”
When the garden launched it was open two mornings a week, but now has enough volunteers to open for four days, Monday to Thursday.
Abberton Rural Training offers free training courses to up skill volunteers and the local residents from the garden as part of a partnership called Seeds4Growth.
Nicola added: “I also highlighted how keen we to get started on Phase 2.
“Due to the high number of visitors to the Community Garden we really need to have more indoor space.
“This will be within the existing waste land, to include a new building container for visitors and volunteers.
“The community garden as a whole is just wonderful and it’s a pleasure to show how successful the volunteers have been in such a short time.
“The community Garden has enabled everyone to make new friends and be part of something bigger.”
The garden is a result of a unique collaboration between the Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care System Local Estates Forum, the North East Essex Health and Wellbeing Alliance, site owners NHS Property Services and Community Voluntary Services Tendring (CVST).
Anyone who wants to get involved can contact 01255 425692 or email admin@cvstendring.org.uk.