Tuk Tuk Grow and Go is a mobile community food growing and cooking initiative for families in Edinburgh. Using our tuk tuk and soup bike, we’ll visit neighbourhoods, community spaces and schools to deliver hands-on educational sessions that make growing and healthy eating easy, fun and accessible. 

We’ll begin with short sessions that engage families in thinking about what they could grow at home – focusing on simple, low-maintenance options like herbs and easy to grow vegetables that work well in small spaces. We’ll explore what would be practical and enjoyable for each family, considering their needs, available space and interest. 

At each location, we’ll display examples of plants grown from seed and offer Growing Survival Kits – simple starter packs including compost, pots, seeds or seedlings, and easy-to-follow instructions. These kits will be tailored based on family feedback, supporting people to feel confident and capable of growing their own herbs and vegetables at home, all year round. 

Each session will also include a food component: hot soup or a dish using the same herbs or vegetables being promoted. We’ll serve this using our branded soup bike, and share easy, family-friendly recipe cards and optional take-home ingredient packs. 

To connect participants with wider growing opportunities, we’ll offer optional tuk tuk visits to nearby growing sites, creating positive experiences and potential new links for families. 

By bringing everything directly to communities, Tuk Tuk Grow and Go reduces participation barriers and makes food growing visible, social, and engaging. It encourages small but meaningful actions that support climate goals, health, and community resilience. 

There is some underused space around our school campus. We intend to put in raised beds to use this space for growing food, flowers, and herbs.

We intend to involve the community; school, nursery, church, and local; to help us maintain the growing space, and to share in the food which we grow. This will increase the role of the campus as a focus for community groups and positive local action.

We have a space in the school for cooking the produce, and a venue to support the sharing of what we grow together. This would expand the use of the cooking area in the school, making it more efficient and purposeful.

We intend to use the grounds development expertise of Earth Calling (https://earthcalling.org/) to create the space which our community groups can then maintain.

Earth calling will do the labour, and then deliver a training session for parents, staff, and community members so that they can take the allotment project forward.

The flowers will act as a welcome for pollinators as well as community members. The herbs will be available seasonally to local families, and used in sensory play in the nursery. The vegetables will be prepared and shared with the community, using our existing school cooking area, giving experience in harvesting, preparing, and cooking produce from fresh.  

The trees are intended to provide a green corridor between two existing isolated stands of trees on site. The wildlife hedging will provide a home for small animals, such as songbirds, and increase biodiversity on the site.

The community members, children, and staff, of the campus will have an opportunity to develop skills and awareness around food growing and plant care. We hope that adding a bench to the space will make it pleasant and encourage community members to spend time there and share skills. We will also have two tables, one which can be used for garden work, such as potting and gathering harvest, and the other one for offering produce, flowers, or herbs to the local community.

A class/year group (P5) from the primary school will maintain the allotment during the school day, and there is access outside of school hours, and terms, from the all-year nursery/ELC. Evening and weekend access would be through a ‘Friends of’ group who would have a copy of the gate key.

The class/year group (P5)will incorporate this into their ‘class yearly project’, as part of their Eco and Sustainability curriculum. This will form part of their Interdisciplinary Learning incorporating all curriculum areas including Literacy (Writing and Reading) and Mathematics. Allocating to a class/year group also ensures that all pupils as part of their, ‘StJV Pupil Learning Journey’ have this learning experience.

By concentrating on growing our own fruit and vegetables we aim to decrease our carbon foot print by sourcing as much of our food locally or at least from the UK contributing to the Council's Net Zero target.  In addition we will offer working in a garden environment to volunteers of all ages who will benefit from working with plants and growing food.  Being a Jewish organisation from a security point of view we will not be able to open our doors to the general passing public unless we have prior notice of who is coming through our gates.  Having said that we are already taking Church and local U3A groups round our Biblical Garden which forms part of the general garden. We have connections with the Salisbury Centre next door and St Mary's Cathedral Eco Group. A fruit orchard is the next step in expanding our food growing operation. Volunteers from the wider community are welcome to work with us in the garden. At the moment we a limited amount of edible produce eg leeks, onions, coriander, broad beans as well as non edible plants in the Biblical Garden eg roses, poppies, lily of the Valley. 

We would like to expand our growing vegetable space to accommodate a waist high trug to allow accessibility for older gardeners and cooks who find bending difficult. In anticipation of more volunteer gardeners we need more gardening tools and shed to house the equipment. 

To plant a contained 30-tree community orchard on the boundary of Inch Park and Inch Housing Estate (from hereon: The Inch) with additional planting of 60 fruit and nut trees and 250 other trees and shrubs (varieties could include more fruit and nut trees). The community orchard will act as an outdoor learning and growing space, with further planting throughout Inch Park and possibly The Inch; the latter depending on outcomes generated by the tree planting coordinator and community development worker post (from hereon: TPC-CDW).   

The overall project aims to foster community engagement, educate for biodiversity, food sustainability and climate literacy, whilst enhancing the overall health and well-being of our local communities.

Maintenance and care are key to the survival of urban woodlands and orchards. To this end the project focuses on training a team of Maintenance and Care artists (MCs for the community orchard and wider treescape) drawn from the local community and our partner organisations.

Key Objectives (adapted for wordcount):

1. Community Engagement:
   • Involve local residents in the planning, planting, maintenance and celebration of the orchards and the park’s wider treescape.
   • Host regular volunteer days to foster a sense of ownership and community pride.
   • Collaborate with local schools, community groups, and businesses.
2. Biodiversity and Climate Education:
   • Develop educational programs and materials to inform the community about the importance of biodiversity and climate change.
   • Partner with Edinburgh-based environmental organisations to provide expert-led tours and workshops with a focus on tree care (including orchard care) and companion species.
   • Create interpretive signage to educate visitors on different plant species and their ecological benefits.
3. Health Benefits:
   • Promote physical activity through orchard maintenance and tree care workshops.
   • Improve mental health by providing a serene green space for relaxation, recreation and imaginative play.
   • Provide access to fresh, organic fruit and nuts, encouraging healthier eating habits.

Specifically, regarding this funding bid:

The TPC-CDWs will undertake the planting of the community orchard and 60 additional fruit and nut trees in collaboration with FOIP and the wider community; this will include planting more fruit and nut trees if the community favour extending the food growing focus within The Inch. To maximise engagement the TPC-CDWs will run regular planting days with designated community groups from late September 2025-March 2026. In advance of these planting days (through July-August), and as part of their follow-up and overall engagement, the TPC-CDWs will liaise with partner organisations, local residents, and others (see below) to explore planting locations and food growing initiatives within The Inch. Key to the project’s success will be the recruitment of volunteers committed to the ongoing maintenance, care and celebration of the trees. While some of the volunteers will be members of FOIP, a broader base of community volunteers will be required. The TPC-CDWs role will be to galvanise that volunteer base and to provide a range of tree planting days not limited to the availability of FOIP’s existing members and associates. 

There is a huge unmet need for food growing space such as allotments, and ours is a low-income area where growing your own is often the only way to access high-quality, organic fruit and vegetables.

Local young people recently built several new raised beds to create an allotment area at Sighthill Community Centre (Gate 55), as part of an SVQ in Rural Skills. The project will support them and the other residents who have begun growing food here - using organic, no-dig methods - in becoming a formally constituted and thriving community food growing group.

The project will enable the group to fit out a space to use for propagation; plant fruit bushes; and install a water butt.

It will cover the cost of a part-time Project Worker (12 hours per month) who – as well as taking part in weekly gardening sessions as a volunteer herself - will work to promote and expand the group and ensure that all parts of the community can come and get involved. The Project Worker will provide the group with administrative support, and link it up with potential partner organisations such as RBGE to come and run workshops in Gate 55’s new food growing spaces.

The food growing spaces now encompass an allotment with seven large raised beds and a tattie ridge, and a large planter in the courtyard of the building. As well as these, there is a sizeable south-facing garden area that the centre will be inviting the group to develop and use for community food growing (it is currently short grass and paving, but has two mature apple trees in it), with support from the Project Worker and the Wider Achievement Officer at Gate 55 (who will work in partnership on this project). The group will go on a visit to Lauriston Farm to get more ideas about what they want to grow in the different spaces.

The project is partnering with Sighthill Library, with plans to set up a seed library inside it.

This autumn, the project will see the group look at composting and wormeries, with a view to additional composting or wormery facilities being built for the food growing.

The growing spaces will be open to all. Everyone will be able to come and simply enjoy them or take part in simple tasks such as watering at any time during Sighthill Community Centre: Gate 55’s opening hours.

The produce will be made available to the local community for free at two large harvest meals, which will be open to all, and, during other periods, using a very low-cost, community veg box (pantry-style) scheme.

The bunker is well placed at the north end of Costorphine Hill to be a hub for locals who like to experience nature. We are aware that there is food poverty in the local area and are working with Tummies not Trash to establish a partnership to host weekly meals, and we have joined ECCAN. As we have plenty of outdoor space, we would like to set up a community garden that will simultaneously provide food for volunteers and also give people an opportunity to socialise and interact with the land in a positive way. Ideally, we would run a weekly drop in event that ties in with the live-in volunteers on site who could monitor the progress and keep things going in between sessions. We are a young charity and it is important to us to work in a sustainable way and establish relationships with the local area, filling a need that exists in the community. We could also potentially buy more chickens (we currently have 5) or ducks to provide eggs.

Funding Application Statement (Public-Facing):

We are seeking funding to expand community food growing and training opportunities at Lauriston Farm through the installation of a shared polytunnel. The ELREC Organic Gardening Group, made up of local beginner growers, has been cultivating organic vegetables on-site for the past three years, with expert support from volunteer Dr. Sam Page, a specialist in natural pest management with over 30 years of international experience.

Our group currently grows a variety of nutritious crops, including kale, beans, garlic, and squash. However, the short Scottish growing season limits what can be successfully cultivated outdoors. A polytunnel will allow us to extend the season, protect seedlings from early spring weather and pests, and grow a wider range of nutritious crops such as tomatoes, aubergines, and melons.

This project will also significantly expand our capacity to deliver practical horticultural training in both outdoor no-dig beds and the new indoor growing space. Importantly, the polytunnel will be a shared resource, supporting over 20 other local community groups who garden at Lauriston Farm. Funding will help us build a more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable local food system while offering hands-on learning for people of all backgrounds.