St Saviour’s Church High Green in Sheffield has opened a community allotment. This is the latest development in the life of St Saviour’s Community Project. The project was started just before the murder of organist Alan Greaves on Christmas Eve 2012 and is led by his widow Maureen. She said, “I’ve been wanting to help our community develop skills in growing food for a long time. Our community project already runs a foodbank and the Friday Feast, a meal that only costs £1 per adult and children eat free, which is our contribution to fighting child poverty. But I want to help people to grow food, get their hands dirty, build community and have fun together.”
Maureen Greaves is the outreach worker for St Saviour’s Church and a member of the Church Army community. She set up a team to start the allotment project over a year ago and now is ready to open it up to the whole community. The opening was on Tuesday 17th May at 10.30am at the allotment between Paces Campus and St Mary’s Church School on Pack Horse Lane, High Green.
Simon Bessant, the Vicar and chair of the community project said, “Maureen Greaves has been dreaming about this community allotment for a couple of years and it’s marvellous that she and her team have now reached the point that we can officially open it. We have had a great support from High Green Development Trust who have given us the use of their land and we are grateful for their partnership in serving our community. Additionally, many individuals and groups in High Green have given us finance, equipment and labour and we really appreciate their generosity.”
Maureen said, “The opening was very informal and it was great to see so many local people there. In particular, it was wonderful to have children from Paces Conductive Education School next door joining us. I’m really excited about the community allotment and I’m hoping see many more people getting stuck in over the summer”