Every1's Garden - Grow, Care & Share (360G-SCVO-a0gb00000127f8tAAA)

-Increased project participation and resulting participant benefits. The target group we are approaching is in its vast majority not accustomed to eating a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables, gardening or cooking. Our pilot project took place in our most productive months which was positive because participants saw an abundance of produce from the garden and the plot they planted but it had the drawback of being overwhelming to some, due to the fact that it was too much information too fast and thus it was difficult to retain. The fast pace of the project both in the manner of material taught as well as the creation of partnerships with other organisations to bring us more new participants well after the project started meant that there could not be a specific schedule that would allow a complete introduction, overview, progression and refinement of a specific module. The additional funding would allow us to surpass this challenge by pacing down the speed of the teachings and ensuring the more essential adoption of habits in the participants' everyday lives. As one participant commented; "You cannot push these things on people, you have to take time" - Allow a full seasonal cycle to take place. This point is very important to expand and develop the project. The pilot has highlighted the need for the project to run all year not just the 6 month 'growing' season. Gardening is not a short term endeavour for the most experienced for gardeners, let alone a group of completely inexperienced individuals. We have tried to incorporate as much gardening and cooking knowledge as possible in the pilot project but a full 12 month growing season that includes late harvests in the autumn storage and conservation, soil preparation and plot design during the otherwise slow winter months, cultivar selection and seed germination during the spring and intensive planting, thinning out, harvesting, pest control, feeding etc. during the busy summer. An all year project will allow the participants to get the full picture of the growing cycle, the best harvesting and storing methods as well as the nutritional and financial benefits they can get from seasonal produce. Further funding will also help us expand and build on the benefit from the newly formed partnerships with other organisations as it would allow additional the time will be provided for exchange of participants, ideas and collaborative events. As mentioned in the previous section, we have approached and decided to collaborate with many local organisations, complementing each other's activities in a manner that will ensure longevity of our projects. That however is an endeavour that takes greatly benefits from time as partnerships are built from common events, common workshops, exchange of participants and setting common goals. -Lastly, Running a year round this year would allow us to record and document a full cycle for the project which, along with the bi-weekly feedback from our participants would provide excellent material for the creation of a case study for this pilot project. It would include our full cycle of operations with pictures, data, challenges, successes, all the issues that were covered monthly and suggestions for improvement. This would greatly benefit other community centres, third sector organisations and even governmental organisations that would be interested to run a similar project as it would set a precedent of good practice to follow. We believe that it would further help our community in a larger sense.