Gardeners Café Community Meals

Granton Community Gardeners in Edinburgh run a weekly ‘Gardeners Café’ in a local community centre, which takes place after their regular drop-in gardening session in the nearby community growing spaces started by local residents. 

The three-course meal is cooked by volunteers, often using produce from the garden. People can pay as much as they can afford or feel the meal is worth, or they may choose to volunteer in the kitchen or the garden. One of the residents explains: “It’s good that it’s weekly, so that people can return: that builds community and everything else can grow from that!”. In the longer-term they want the Gardeners Café to become a hub that can also link people into other local support services and community activities.