Garden which helps provide produce for community kitchen wins awards
A community garden set up by OsNosh has won two awards in its first year.
The community interest company, based at The Centre in Oak Street, Oswestry, is using land around The Centre and its roof terrace to grow fresh ingredients for its community kitchen, and to educate local people in sustainable gardening skills.
It is an integral part of the OsNosh campaign to get the local community involved in every aspect of the food cycle – from field to fork and round again.
As well as running a community café where people pay what they can, it distributes over 1,000 kilos of surplus food a month and providing cooking education for young people.
OsNosh also puts on a garden club every Thursday from 10am to 12pm.
The community garden has been rated as outstanding in the Royal Horticultural Society and Heart of England in Bloom It’s Your Neighbourhood national awards for 2022.
It also impressed locally, winning the Oswestry in Bloom 2022 category for the best community premises or project.
OsNosh director, Elliot Bastos, said that the two awards had been an amazing feat for the garden’s first year.
He explained that setting up the community garden alongside head gardener Lesley Wills had been a natural progression for OsNosh.
“The garden allows us to involve local people in reducing food waste through composting, whilst providing food and the knowledge of how to grow it to help fight food poverty and inequality.
“We are so pleased that our work with the community garden has been recognised through these two awards. A massive thank you is needed to our community and the main funders of our community garden, the RHS, via their Connected Communities grant,” he said.
"The garden is open to everyone with lots to learn and get involved with including seed saving, building compost, sowing seasonal crops, no-dig growing methods and food forests."
Further information about OsNosh and how to get involved and donate can be found online at osnosh.co.uk/or on Facebook at OsNosh – Oswestry Community Kitchen.
