Growing Collaborations

At the start of 2024, Wiggly Charity teamed up with Project Grow in a bid to grow 50% of the vegetables used in Wiggly’s Gloucester cookery courses and shared with the community of Kingsholm by utilising the space within the existing community garden at the Heritage Hub. We are working to prove the case for a more sustainable community food system growing chemical free plants and produce with low food miles (less than 0.5 miles from Hub to kitchen) and all with zero packaging and waste.

Project Grow is a social enterprise plant nursery + growing space that provides plants and produce to community organisations that feed their local communities, to food banks, food pantries and other food projects. They believe growing food for self and others is an act of rebellion. They grow seasonal plants and produce without the use of herbicides, pesticides, and any other chemicals. They only use peat-free soil, grow in raised and no-dig beds and ensure they follow mother nature’s seasonal cycle.

As Grow with Wiggly flourished, our weekly harvest from the Heritage Hub enabled the Wiggly participants to learn how to prepare and cook seasonal vegetables. We have used the vegetables in a variety of courses and events throughout the year, including with these partner organisations below.

But we quickly realised our Grow with Wiggly project also offered the potential to serve up a double helping of social impact. We found we were offering a full circle opportunity for people to volunteer at the gardens and kitchens, learning new skills to set them on a path to independence and employability. We were cooking on gas!

However, both our organisations rely heavily on limited grant funding and it quickly became apparent that we were competing against one another and other local partners for funding to deliver our social impact mission. So we decided to spice things up and work together to develop a sustainable independent income stream, based on the Grow with Wiggly model.

INTRODUCING SOCIAL SOURCE

Social Source is a collaboration between Wiggly and Project Grow CIC, born out of our Grow with Wiggly project. As our project has flourished, we realised its potential to deliver even more social impact, by creating a range of fresh sauces and preserves for sale, with all profits feeding into Project Grow CIC and Wiggly Charity. Our products are grown and harvested in Gloucester by volunteers and handmade into small batches of seasonal deliciousness by our Wiggly Chef in Gloucester. Our vision is to grow Social Source to support our growing projects and cookery classes so that we can empower and upskill vulnerable people of all ages and abilities and offer employability opportunities in our kitchens and the garden.

Our Products

In the first six months of our Social Source project, we have created five products using over 100kg of vegetables from Project Grow.

Our first product was a Mulberry Dessert Sauce, made with fruit harvested from the Bishop of Gloucester’s garden - delicious with ice cream or pancakes, it was a real privilege to launch our collaboration with this special product.

Next came two tomato-based pasta sauces - a Tomato and Basil and Tomato and Chilli Sauce - with no additives, preservatives or sugar, just the fresh taste of the gardens.

We have recently released two chutneys in the run up to Christmas - a Spiced Pumpkin and a Winter Beetroot flavour. They make ideal Christmas gifts and are both delicious served with cheeses or cold meats.

We are grateful to our local independent stockists, listed below, for supporting Social Source by stocking our products. Everything we make is hand-made in small batches by our Wiggly Chef, and when it's gone, it's gone - get down to your local stockist to grab yours while they are still available. All profits go back into supporting our growing and cookery projects for vulnerable people.