Hill House Community Centre believes that urban agriculture can be beneficial to the environment, and to the health and wellbeing of community members. The introduction of community gardens may be able to reduce the impact of food deserts in low-income areas and allow residents greater access to nutritious food that is necessary to live a healthy life. We plan to create a new community garden space at Hill House to provide opportunity for local people to work together outdoors, promote community cohesion and experience improvements in their physical and mental health. This is a partnership project with local residents, local schools, voluntary groups and supported by London Borough of Sutton.

What we'll deliver:

• 10 raised planters
• Large Greenhouse for all year planting
• A new sensory garden for people with learning needs

Why it's a great idea:

Some of the benefits our project will bring include: Bring people together to improve a public space with the added benefit of increasing access to fresh foods through gardening activities. Provide opportunity for inter-generational gardening activities (engage local primary schools to partner with ageing residents to help design aspect of the garden and a sensory area Increase physical activity through garden maintenance activities Improve dietary habits through education Increase fruit and vegetable intake Reduce risk of obesity and obesity-related diseases Improve mental health and promote relaxation Promote community cohesion and social connection Partnership with local schools to run afterschool and holiday club gardening activities

Steps to get it done:

• setting up 10 planters
• Building a large greenhouse
• buying first 50 plants
• recruiting first 10 volunteers

Overview of Hill House The site is owned by London Borough of Sutton and Hill House is leased to Community Action Sutton. Since taking over the lease of Hill House, Community Action Sutton has been running several notable projects which include: Food Hub that provided over 2,000 food parcels and 1,000 cooked meals to residents as part of COVID-19 recovery projects, We have successfully worked with 60 volunteers and 8 community connectors during Covid19 and lockdowns to respond to address food poverty We help set up a Wellness Hub to provide support around mental health and wellbeing for local residents and frontline workers We work in partnership with local colleges to provide work placements for students to develop practical skills and gain work experience During the lockdown we successfully set up a Men in Sheds support group and have had over 180 engagements with men to provide mental health support and information Hill House host several support group sessions