CLYDEBANK OSPREY AMATEUR BOXING CLUB are looking to set up a dry food pantry to help the local community. This will help not only the existing club participants but also make the club welcoming to all local residents hopefully encouraging them to participate in exercise in a warm, safe comfortable enviroment.  This will lead to life long health benefits and an increased sense of community in the locals area.

Community pantry build £1200 (including food purchase)

Running costs (utilities etc)  £1300

The HUB will be committed to creating an inclusive, welcoming space for young adults aged 16 and above. Our mission is to foster personal growth, build strong social connections, and provide a platform for members to explore their interests and passions. We aim to accomplish this by offering a range of programs, including food budgeting, meal planning and sharing meals. Our senior youth group Ur-Turn prepares a meal each week to sit and share, and these moments are beneficial to all who attend. To continue this tradition and extend its benefits, we are introducing an additional evening session for the young adult in our community. 

We will provide guidance, support, and referrals to other organisations, addressing food poverty and dietary issues with the collaboration of outside agencies. By partnering with other organisations, we aim to offer the best support and guidance pathways to enhance the future confidence and wellbeing of our young adults. We are dedicated to establishing a safe, vibrant, and inclusive environment where individuals can connect, learn, and grow together. By offering a supportive and engaging atmosphere, we encourage personal development, community involvement, and the pursuit of shared goals. Our objective is to empower individuals through education, life skills, and active participation. All of our sessions will endeavour to improve their wellbeing, whilst focusing on preventive measures and raise awareness on issue-based topics such as substance misuse.

Cost Breakdown : 

Shared Meals programme = £500, Evening Sessions cost = £700, Administrative Costs = £300, Staffing and Facilitator Costs = £500, Utilities = £500.

We grow our organic crops, in an off grid environment & share them free around our community.  Since our earliest days, we have had the aim to be able to offer a social cooking oportunity where we sow, grow, harvest & cook our own vegetables on site. We have gained the necessary skills over the last few years & are now ready to expand & to do this we need a power source. The most economic way to do this is to install a generator with electric hook up & we need your help to establish this system.  This would open up the opportunity for a wider community involvement bringing home the ease & value of simple , on the spot, crop growing techniques from plot to the pot.   No lingering transport miles/expense/time involvement-we can access our own fresh, healthy produce, full of the best of nutritional values, on our doorstep. Plus the added bonus of sharing, caring and growing in our understanding of each other as we grow through each season.  Creating this warm welcome space will provide much needed respite & shelter  from this ongoing, harsh climate of food & fuel poverty that deeply prevails within our community.

Our project will pay for an experienced Community Garden Project Worker who will

Develop the project with the support of users and volunteers, Develop a seasonal food growing strategy for the space, Organise the allocation of raised beds , Provide ongoing support to all users , Liaise with local schools/nurseries and other local groups within the community to encourage wider engagement with the project, Organise weekly onsite tasks including maintenance and upkeep, Encourage and support the development of an allotments/growing spaces committee, Research further funding opportunities to support material/resource costs and long-term sustainability of the project

We believe our project will support the local community by

Providing the opportunity and resources for local people to grow their own fruit and vegetables, Providing local school children with basic gardening knowledge, highlighting the importance of healthy eating and increasing awareness of ‘where food comes from’, The users and participants will be able to supplement their family’s diets with food produced in the community growing space, Encouraging ownership and personal responsibility , Fostering collaboration and the benefits and positivity of working together, Providing a safe and inclusive space for people to meet and socialise – therefore reducing social isolation, Promoting intergenerational engagement through allotments/growing space users being supported to deliver gardening/growing sessions with local school children, Improving the physical and mental wellbeing of those involved

Breakdown of costs

£2,400 - Cost of Community Garden Project Worker to manage project/£20 per hour x 8 hours per week x 20 weeks

We are a locally run charity who deliver a mobility scooter, manual and powered wheelchair service to residents of the West Dunbartonshire and surrounding areas. By allowing individuals with mobility issues to get in and around the shopping centre, to shop, meet up with friends, or just go for a coffee. allowing individuals to feel part of their community.

We deliver a drop off and pick up service of the scooters and wheelchairs whereby our members can call the shop when they have arrived at the shopping centre and with the help of our staff/volunteers, we will deliver the equipment requested. The service is situated within the shopping centre the staff/volunteers can meet you at the car parks, bus stop, train station or taxi ranks.

We would like to apply for £1000 to get our service users who are aged  65 and over and suffer with food insecuriy in West Dunbartonshire, the help with food vouchers from Farmfoods. This will allow our service users to buy sufficient food for themselves as we know a lot of them are struggling with the cost of living crisis. We would also like £500 to go towards admin costs.

£500 for Food Vouchers 

£500 for Admin Costs 

We will use Grant money to purchase

Food vouchers £500

Running Costs - GoDaddy for email and website  £378 anually

Fuel to go round Local Authority to deliver Vouchers and attend meetings £150

Stationary to cover ink, labels, envelopes, paper etc. £300

Group Laptop to continue our Project £622

Power to run computer, printer etc. £200

Phone Costs £100

Action Old Kilpatrick has worked in partnership with West Dunbartonshire Councils Greenspace Team for a number of years which has included the use of a large greenhouse situated in Old Dalnottar Cemetary. This has allowed for the group to grow a variety of plants from seed and distribute throughout the flower beds in the village. We have successfully grown vegetables for the community including a herb bed.

However, the greenhouse has not been utilised to its full potential due to the demands required of water and volunteer hours.

The installation of a watering system will allow AOK to grow more vegetable and herbs for the benefit of the community. We have two established food banks servicing the area and a housing complex and having a greater amount of food available will help us directly respond to a growing need for fresh, accessible, free food within the community. 

The Total Cost is £491.52

Water Butt  x3  £123

Soaker Hose x4 £104

Timer Hose  £62.82

Standard Hose £17,54

Connector Kit x4 £34.16

Seeds/plants/ compost £150

We are applying for £2,500 as we don't get any other support  from other agencies

We provide support signposting advice in collaboration with CAB who attend in person bi weekly and also offer support via referrals and phone numbers. We encourage carers to come in and not worry about their heating costs, we want to reduce isolation and we also provide support to over 110 kinship families within West Dunbartonshire 

We will open daily through Winter from 10am till 1.30 to facilitate this for families . 

£500 will be used for food 

The remainder will be spent on continuing support to both our weekly service. This will help with both volunteer and running costs 

We also require a soup urn and extra bowls dishes. 

We are applying for £500 to purchase food for our community pantry which is currently supporting up to 150 people/families every week. Our drop in cafe offers a free two course hot meal cooked fresh on our premises.  Over the winter we are a warm hub for families who are struggling to heat their homes and also feed their children.  We provide vochers for warm clothing along with gas and electricity support for vulnerable adults and families.  The additional £2000 will enable us to support more families within West Dunbartonshire and continue to provide a warm safe place for our clients.

During 2024 our group delivered a key cooking programme enabling 33 community members to come together to learn key skills in cooking based on low budget recipes.  This programme focussed solely on providing skills to women, this year we want to enable the group to encourage both men and women to get involved in our programme.   Being able to deliver the programme to a wider group will enable this programme to reach a wider audience of people.  Having successfully delivered the programme in 2024 enabled the group to reflect on the impact on social isolation; bringing 33 separate people together to form a social learning group, making friends with people that some of the group had never met before.  Friendships quickly formed during the learning process, increasing friendships and relationships with groups of people who may never have met if not for a common goal in learning to cook on a budget.  Following reflections with the group it was decided to offer a more wider menu this time to enable people with a more secluded diet rather than mainstream from last year.  It became apparent to the group that many including some of our members are forced to follow a strict diet, therefore to design and create a menu to accommodate other dietary needs would prove beneficial to a wide community as well as enabling other mainstream eaters to a new programme.  Priority would be given to those who are reliant on strict dietary needs this time as well emabling men to join the women in the learning.  The programme provides participants to cook a meal to take home for dinner to share with their families at each session.

A further aspect which was developed was that of the family bond, one family had three different generations learning to cook on a budget, enabling each of the members to develop key skiills; having a laugh together deciding to make learning fun for all involved, a further hope for the future programme that other families will get involved in learning key skills.  One member of this family had previously relied on fast foods to feed their family, having learned how to use kitchen equipment safely this enabled them to learn how to prepare fresh ingredients for their young child, who now regularly enjoys fresh vegetables as a snack at school rather than junk food.

Dumbarton West area forms part of West Dunbartonshire. listed third in the social deprivation index comprising of many negative trends such as child poverty and adult poverty trends.  Many people living in this area are reliant on welfare benefits to provide financial assistance to their families.  Many generations do not have the skills and knowledge on how to cook healthy meals.  During COVID 2019 the introduction of readily available mobile apps for ordering fast food and still popular some six years on, making cooking regular meals less appealing to the generations of today, preferring reliance on more conviennce foods to that of healthier options.

Empowering Women primarily aims to reduce mental health in women aged 16+, exploring eating healthy improves mental health in a variety of ways: eating healthy over a long period of time improves on physical wellbeing as well as social wellbeing and emotional wellbeing.  Looking after our body both internal and external not only provides the body with nourishment but also cuts down on the need for medical appointments and reduces long term heath conditions.  People who engage in lifelong learning skills are more likely to live longer.  

Funding will pay for the programme to run for a period of five months during 2025: May, June, August, September, October and November, bringing in season foods to enable the group to explore different recipes in a peer learning style.  Each week the group will consult on which recipes they would like to cook.  The first week will explore the benefits of eating healthy, briefly examine health condtions caused by not eating healthy and familiarise them with the kitchen and the equipment they will be using.  The first week will enable the group to meet each other, discuss future recipes and plan for future sessions between them.  It is hoped each of the members will take a turn on delivering a session to each other.  Any member not comfortable with this task can be supported by other members to deliver the sessions as a couple or as a smaller group of people to ensure no participant is left out from the leadership role.  This role enables participants to get invovled in all aspects of the sessions and to empower them in their learning.

Funding will cover venue let and running costs, these come to 2000 pounds with food costs coming to 500 pounds; based on providing good quality ingredients at a local low cost supermarket based in Dumbarton.  Promotion for the programme will be done over social media pages operated by Empowering Women and word of mouth.