A centre for Griffith residents doing it rough is hoping to produce some local green thumbs, off the back of a $9-thousand dollar grant they have just been awarded.
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Barnabas House provides affordable housing to people from a variety of backgrounds, including immigrants and locals who have come across hard times.
Staff member Catherine Sharpe sent the initial application for the grant, which she plans to use to build a vegetable garden to help grow the sense of community within the facility.
"Barnabas House is a centre full of lonely people ... a lot of whom have just come to Australia," she said. "For the most part, they're all strangers to one another."
"We want to help establish a community ... to create a sense of safety and belonging here so that if they move off they have that base."
"I am a fairly avid gardener myself and I know just how beneficial gardening can be for people socially."
The $9,200 will go towards setting up a water tank, a garden shed, raised garden beds, soil, tools, a fence and a green house.
Mrs Sharpe says they are hoping to make the garden as self-sufficient as possible.
"We're going to buy buckets and set them up at everybody's blocks, we can use them to collect food scraps and make our own compost for the garden."
"With that and the water tank, hopefully it will all be able to run itself."
She hopes to eventually set up classes at the facility, teaching people the science behind gardening, as well as how to prepare and eat the things they grow.
Meor Mohammad Shazilli is one of the residents at the centre keen to get his hands dirty.
"It is a great plan, it is always good to eat food that you grow yourself," he said.
"It's something for the community ... the vegetables that we plant we can all enjoy among ourselves."
Fellow resident Timothy Butler agreed that the veggie patch will be a big help to those in the facility.
"The community has been really good since I've been here, but this will bring us closer together."
The grant has come during a chaotic period for the centre, which after years of being around 70 per cent full, has been hovering at around 98 per cent since 2019.
Barnabas House expect to receive the money in January, and hope to have the garden set up by Easter.
The grant was awarded as part of the 'Seeds of Renewal' program from ANZ and the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal.
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Monty Jacka
Monty is a journalist at The Daily Advertiser in Wagga. He can be reached at m.jacka@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Monty is a journalist at The Daily Advertiser in Wagga. He can be reached at m.jacka@austcommunitymedia.com.au
