Communigrow

Communigrow is a sustainable food education charity and community garden based in a 2.4 acre field in East Malling. We teach people how to grow chemical free food, using the therapeutic benefits of gardening to bring about positive change to physical and mental wellbeing. Our beneficiaries include children and young people with special education needs, local schools, under 5s, people from under-resourced communities, young carers, adults with additional needs, older adults experiencing social isolation, veterans and emergency services workers, people with health conditions and people experiencing bereavement. In addition we also provide purposeful volunteering activities for adults of all ages. Communigrow is off-grid. We use solar power for electricity, we have composting toilets, we harvest rainwater and we have many different natural habitats such as wildflower meadows, wildlife ponds, dead hedges and bug hotels etc to encourage biodiversity. Our growing methods are environmentally friendly and include companion planting, ‘no dig’ practices to preserve soil structure and minimise carbon release, producing our own compost, mulching to retain water, drought resistant planting and never, ever using chemicals on our crops. In 2024 we were proud to receive the Wilder Kent Gold Award in recognition of our protection of wildlife and the natural environment. This year all of our staff have undertaken training and achieved ‘Carbon Literate’ certification with the Carbon Literacy Project, which involved making and seeing through personal and work based pledges to cut carbon. In 2023 we were awarded the accolade Kent’s Mental Being Space of the Year by East Kent Mind, and in 2024 we were finalists in the BBC Make A Difference Award, The Third Sector Awards and the Kent Charity of the Year Award. This month we won the Community Category award in the Adobe Express Your Innovation competition run by Telegraph Media Group. Enquires to info@communigrow.org.uk