GIY and Energia Want to ‘Get Ireland Growing’ With €75,000 Fund
GIY in partnership with Energia have launched ‘Energia Get Ireland Growing’, a €75,000 pool of funding available to enable food growing by community and voluntary organisations all across Ireland including Northern Ireland. The application period is open until 19th January, 2018.
The ‘Get Ireland Growing’ initiative has to date supported almost 500 community food growing projects, positively impacting over 120,000 people. €340,000 has been awarded to groups over the last five years and this was distributed to projects right across the country.
In 2018, the Energia Get Ireland Growing Fund will be split across three categories ‘Sow’, ‘Grow’ and ‘Harvest’ with awards ranging from €500 to €2,000. The big news this year is that one very special group will receive a massive €5,000 grant for their project. Together GIY and Energia will support at least 85 community food growing groups in 2018.
The funding pool is now open to any community group, school, NGO or Not for Profit, community garden or allotment group, GIY group, hospital, crèche, direct provision centre, men’s shed or any group. The projects should all have an element of outreach, promotion and inclusivity and should have some plan to encourage more people to grow their own food. The deadline for applications is the 19th January and applications can be made online via GIY.ie.
Commenting at the launch of the €75,000 fund, Karen O’ Donohoe, Campaign Patron and GIY Head of Community development said, “It is an absolute privilege to be able to launch this fund with Energia. Here at GIY, it is our mission to get as many people regardless of location, age or means learning about and growing their own food and the provision of this funding is invaluable in achieving this goal. Through this application process we come across the most inspiring ideas, and being able to make those ideas a reality is incredible; we’re really excited to see the creative concepts arrive into us from the 32 counties again this year.”
Amy O’Shaughnessy, Energia Sponsorship Manager, said: “We’re thrilled to launch Energia Get Ireland Growing for a second year. We had a phenomenal response to this initiative last year. The passion and dedication of people across the country who are igniting positive change in their communities is truly inspiring. At Energia we are committed to promoting sustainable living and helping families and communities to reduce their carbon footprint, so we’re really delighted to support this wonderful initiative with GIY.”
The successful applicants will be celebrated at a gala event which will be held at the home of GIY, GROW HQ in Waterford, in March 2018.
CAPTION:
Pictured are: Karen O’Donohoe, GIY Community Manager; Amy O’Shaughnessy, Energia Sponsorship Manager; and Saoirse Harvey, age 4, and Nathan Cullen-Delsol, age 3, at the launch of the ‘Energia Get Ireland Growing’ fund.
