Co-Create is a citizen led food and greening initiative aimed at empowering, inspiring and activating positive change. Mandy, from Co-Create, shares their story with us below:

“Our vehicle is greening and our approach is working with ambassadors from communities in need and working with them to either green their spaces or where our food ambassadors are concerned, these are people with food growing expertise and experience but don’t have the means for the supplies. We currently have two initiatives going which I would like to share a little about.

Kaunda is an experienced food grower and our first Ambassador. We set him up with compost, seedlings, mulch and eventually planter boxes as well. His neighbours observed and wanted to start growing their own food too. With Kaunda as a mentor and support, we were confidently able to keep supplying more materials across to his immediate neighbours. From one grower, there are now 7 households growing their own food. They are leasing the land and their landlord is now open to them using another open field that is currently just rubble as another planting zone.

The next Ambassador is Naomi. She has lived in Retreat for 58 years and her very long street has only one tree. Her dream for so long has been to green her neighbourhood. With her influence, personality and ability, she has been able to connect people who although have lived in the same area their entire lives, have never had reason to even connect with one another. Areas were marked out and over the past 3 weeks, greening has been happening with the generosity of donations and the spirit of the community that has risen to come together to co-create positive change.

We are a small team of passionate locals. Our hope is to create a “green print” that can be replicated far and wide. For now, our focus is on getting 10 pilots (5 food growers and 5 greening initiatives) successfully self-sufficient.

The areas in which both the greening and food are planted has seriously depleted soil so fertiliser and compost are the foundations to any planting.  We want to support local and organic practices, and our growing database is made up of people who have beautiful gardens and encouraging the bridging of divides so that we can collectively empower each other.”

Atlantic Fertilisers is proud to be apart of this wonderful initiative. Our first fertiliser donation went towards a tree planting in Retreat that took place on the 1^st of August. We can’t wait to see them grow!

Would you like to get involved? Follow the links below.

Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube