Help Us Grow Food Around Arran
Donation protected
The Arran Pioneer Project CIC (website) is a group of Islanders working together regarding the lease / donation of areas of unused land on the Isle of Arran to cultivate and grow food, in a coordinated manner with dialogue and support of local commercial producers and for the benefit of all members of the Arran community and the communities around Arran.
Our long term vision is to build a network of community farms on Arran so that everyone has access to a community growing space, in every village on Arran and within walking distance.
Our aim is to help ensure the provision of fresh fruit and vegetables in case of any issues regarding food security for island residents due to the Covid-19 situation and beyond. All sites that we manage are to be used for Community Resilience Farming with the aims of a long term successful partnership between all producers and islanders for the benefit of the community as a whole.
We aim to:
- Increase the level of food security on the island;
- Secure land all over the island to allow for local, seasonal food production;
- Work towards helping the island to become a self-sufficient farming example, gaining traditional knowledge and skills for the next generation within a practical, participatory setting;
- To facilitate food production methods that protect the natural environment, regenerate biodiversity and diverse ecosystems, and create fertile soil on Arran using principles of Agroecology.
- To become a valuable resource for training and apprenticeships (for all abilities and backgrounds) in the future while working with other similar organisations and charities / college and universities throughout Scotland;
- To overcome as a group the key barriers to those wishing to live and farm in traditional areas of the island.
What Will Your Donations Be Used For?
Our project requires funding from a variety of sources to help us to get off the ground, and in the first instance to build infrastructure on the sites that we have access to in Lamlash, Lochranza, Pirnmill, Kilpatrick, Corrie and Cladach.
Summer 2021 Fundraiser for Water Connections
Hi everyone. As you might have noticed, it is HOT and DRY out there. It hasn’t rained in about four weeks. While we are enjoying the lovely sunshine, of course this makes it challenging to manage our newly established gardens. We need to water every single day inside and outside to stop all the food we are growing from drying up.
Our teams of volunteers have made an amazing effort to keep plants watered in Lochranza, Lamlash and Cladach every single day. However it is even more challenging in Lochranza and Lamlash because we don’t have water connections here.
- In Lochranza we are using a pump from the river to fill a thousand litre container, and the pump breaks down from time to time.
- In Lamlash we have run a hose into the field from a very generous neighbour to fill up three old plastic bins being used as water butts, and we use watering cans (pictured) to keep the beds and polytunnel watered.
Clearly neither situation is sustainable, and so we are looking to connect both sites to mains water as soon as possible.
As we establish our new sites in Corrie, Pirnmill and Kilpatrick, and elsewhere, we will need water there too. In Kilpatrick, although we don't water every day, the trees and fruit bushes, pumpkins and potatoes still need to be regularly watered, and volunteers are currently using watering cans filled up with buckets from the burn.
So we are asking once again for your help! A single new water connection from Scottish water costs in the region of £1000 or more. Although we have received some funding towards this, installing five or more new water connections and paying the water rates on top of that is currently outwith our budget.
We are so grateful to the Arran community and others who have so far donated an amazing total of £1,310 pounds to our crowdfunder on GoFundMe. We are hoping to reach the target of £6,000 to be able to install water on at least four of our sites and pay water rates so that we can keep our gardens watered in the future.
We know it’s a big ask - people have already shown so much generosity towards the Pioneer Project and contributed a huge amount to support us in achieving our goals. We ask you to help once again by spreading this far and wide. Every penny that goes towards our crowdfunder will be invaluable to continue our work towards providing more fresh produce to the island, and to make green spaces available to anyone who wants to learn how to grow food.
Thank you very much, as ever, for your support.
----
If we reach our total of £10,000, other priorities include (but are not limited to) the following, in order of priority:
(1) Fencing - Perimeter fencing is essential to secure and preserve sites. Without fencing the project can not operate, it is key to security for users, and to stop deer, rabbits and badgers decimating our efforts. We also need portable electric fencing within our sites to manage livestock such as pigs and chickens.
(2) Building Supplies and groundworks (timber, stone, gravel) including labour trades. Timber, for social hubs, sheds, raised beds, signage, benches, seating and play areas for junior members. Stone and Gravel, For building walls, hardstanding areas to allow access for all users, foundations, paths, drainage.
(3) Tools and Sundries - Gardening tools and also sundries such as netting and fleece, ground cover, and equipment such as a wood chipper.
(4) Horticultural supplies (trees, shrubs, seeds, organic compost) we will focus on native varieties that are resilient to the environment of our sites.
(5) Machinery (digger, tipper) For site works and emergency community use.
(6) Electric, water and waste service installation for all sites to ensure a covid-19 safe environment and year round use.
While as a not-for-profit social enterprise we are applying for funding from a variety of different sources, our project has very ambitious long term goals and we would like to ask for your support today as every little helps towards achieving our vision. Your donation will go towards our immediate work and also to help support us as we seek to identify new sites around Arran going forward
Lochranza Site (Summer 2020):
Lamlash Site (Summer 2020):
.
Our long term vision is to build a network of community farms on Arran so that everyone has access to a community growing space, in every village on Arran and within walking distance.
Our aim is to help ensure the provision of fresh fruit and vegetables in case of any issues regarding food security for island residents due to the Covid-19 situation and beyond. All sites that we manage are to be used for Community Resilience Farming with the aims of a long term successful partnership between all producers and islanders for the benefit of the community as a whole.
We aim to:
- Increase the level of food security on the island;
- Secure land all over the island to allow for local, seasonal food production;
- Work towards helping the island to become a self-sufficient farming example, gaining traditional knowledge and skills for the next generation within a practical, participatory setting;
- To facilitate food production methods that protect the natural environment, regenerate biodiversity and diverse ecosystems, and create fertile soil on Arran using principles of Agroecology.
- To become a valuable resource for training and apprenticeships (for all abilities and backgrounds) in the future while working with other similar organisations and charities / college and universities throughout Scotland;
- To overcome as a group the key barriers to those wishing to live and farm in traditional areas of the island.
What Will Your Donations Be Used For?
Our project requires funding from a variety of sources to help us to get off the ground, and in the first instance to build infrastructure on the sites that we have access to in Lamlash, Lochranza, Pirnmill, Kilpatrick, Corrie and Cladach.
Summer 2021 Fundraiser for Water Connections
Hi everyone. As you might have noticed, it is HOT and DRY out there. It hasn’t rained in about four weeks. While we are enjoying the lovely sunshine, of course this makes it challenging to manage our newly established gardens. We need to water every single day inside and outside to stop all the food we are growing from drying up.
Our teams of volunteers have made an amazing effort to keep plants watered in Lochranza, Lamlash and Cladach every single day. However it is even more challenging in Lochranza and Lamlash because we don’t have water connections here.
- In Lochranza we are using a pump from the river to fill a thousand litre container, and the pump breaks down from time to time.
- In Lamlash we have run a hose into the field from a very generous neighbour to fill up three old plastic bins being used as water butts, and we use watering cans (pictured) to keep the beds and polytunnel watered.
Clearly neither situation is sustainable, and so we are looking to connect both sites to mains water as soon as possible.
As we establish our new sites in Corrie, Pirnmill and Kilpatrick, and elsewhere, we will need water there too. In Kilpatrick, although we don't water every day, the trees and fruit bushes, pumpkins and potatoes still need to be regularly watered, and volunteers are currently using watering cans filled up with buckets from the burn.
So we are asking once again for your help! A single new water connection from Scottish water costs in the region of £1000 or more. Although we have received some funding towards this, installing five or more new water connections and paying the water rates on top of that is currently outwith our budget.
We are so grateful to the Arran community and others who have so far donated an amazing total of £1,310 pounds to our crowdfunder on GoFundMe. We are hoping to reach the target of £6,000 to be able to install water on at least four of our sites and pay water rates so that we can keep our gardens watered in the future.
We know it’s a big ask - people have already shown so much generosity towards the Pioneer Project and contributed a huge amount to support us in achieving our goals. We ask you to help once again by spreading this far and wide. Every penny that goes towards our crowdfunder will be invaluable to continue our work towards providing more fresh produce to the island, and to make green spaces available to anyone who wants to learn how to grow food.
Thank you very much, as ever, for your support.
----
If we reach our total of £10,000, other priorities include (but are not limited to) the following, in order of priority:
(1) Fencing - Perimeter fencing is essential to secure and preserve sites. Without fencing the project can not operate, it is key to security for users, and to stop deer, rabbits and badgers decimating our efforts. We also need portable electric fencing within our sites to manage livestock such as pigs and chickens.
(2) Building Supplies and groundworks (timber, stone, gravel) including labour trades. Timber, for social hubs, sheds, raised beds, signage, benches, seating and play areas for junior members. Stone and Gravel, For building walls, hardstanding areas to allow access for all users, foundations, paths, drainage.
(3) Tools and Sundries - Gardening tools and also sundries such as netting and fleece, ground cover, and equipment such as a wood chipper.
(4) Horticultural supplies (trees, shrubs, seeds, organic compost) we will focus on native varieties that are resilient to the environment of our sites.
(5) Machinery (digger, tipper) For site works and emergency community use.
(6) Electric, water and waste service installation for all sites to ensure a covid-19 safe environment and year round use.
While as a not-for-profit social enterprise we are applying for funding from a variety of different sources, our project has very ambitious long term goals and we would like to ask for your support today as every little helps towards achieving our vision. Your donation will go towards our immediate work and also to help support us as we seek to identify new sites around Arran going forward
Lochranza Site (Summer 2020):
Lamlash Site (Summer 2020):
.Fundraising team (2)
Simon Ross-Gill
Organizer
Lucy Wallace
Team member
