In partnership with Fungall CIC we have been pushing ahead with the growing of mushrooms and then using them in cooking as a substitute for cheap imported and unhealthy meat.

This has been helped by the Community Payback teams helping to construct the growing containers and kitting out the insides. The first harvests of mushrooms have been made and some of this has been used in community cooking. But, similar to the food grown in the community garden. There has been a big demand for the mushrooms from the guys working on the Community Payback Scheme - many of whom are in food poverty themselves and so beneficiaries of the project.

Donating the produce to the guys who are actually growing it seems like such a powerful and inclusive step forward.

We have been looking into trying to make the process more formal, for example certification for growing mushrooms. At the moment we suspect the informal approach the supervisors have adopted will be just as effective, if not more so.

What was also impressive is that the guys were knocked out about how they could do it themselves 'better and cheaper than KFC' one of them suggested.  We feel that this is “empowerment in action” and although unexpected needs to be emphasised as a really positive outcome. It’s something we will certainly want to develop more in the future.