It was great to see the community get together and celebrate the official opening of the food forest garden on Sunday 30th June. Everyone who joined us will agree it was a fabulous day for a picnic in the park!
We successfully applied for the funding offered by the Council as part of the wider ‘Brent Great Get Together – Community Lunch’ event Thanks to the fantastic effort by our supporters and volunteers. The ‘Great Get Together’ is an initiative to celebrate the life of murdered MP Jo Cox. This June would have been Jo’s 45th birthday. Her focus was “to bring communities together and celebrate all that unites us”.
We wanted to hold the picnic to officially open the garden and to thank volunteers for their wonderful support and commitment to help grow, plant and maintain a garden for the future. Everyone involved has done a great deal of work over the last few months on the food forest project. The picnic was to celebrate this great community effort.
A highlight of the day for us was to see the children having fun in the park and giving the hula hoops, big Connect4, Jenga and mini bikes a go, lent to us by Byron Court school. The traditional egg & spoon races proved popular with children and adults. Our goodie bags for winners were stuffed with healthy Nickelodeon snacks and cool mini technology gadgets, kindly donated by Bobby Patel from the Bloom Brands Group.
The furry babies looked fabulous in their cute little fancy-dress outfits, performing their nest treat catches and tail wags. The judging panel, made up by Councillor Daniel Kennelly and Councillor Ihtesham Afzal, certainly had tough but fair decisions to make!
Thank you to Councillor George Crane and Susannah Hall for cutting the celebratory ribbon and cake. Like all of the best parties, everyone got a slice or more of the delicious celebration cakes. (Little secret – the delicious chocolate cake was actually vegan and made by Jagruti Bajaria.)
During August we will focus on keeping the trees and plants watered. We have an WhatsApp watering group set up. If you would like to offer your support, why not join the group by emailing us your mobile phone number to northwickparkcommunitygarden@gmail.com
We often have a big watering evening and use the chance to have a chat and relax in the garden as the sun sets.
Enjoy the summer!