St Mark's Church project at Gamble Memorial Hall helps community

St Mark's Church has led on the scheme which has seen youngsters get involved in activities for the good of the community.

The garden growing

The Star reported that a timber building for storage and a greenhouse received planning permission at Gamble Memorial Hall on City Gardens.

The project has seen the school uniforms 'unicycled' to provide families in the area with free school uniforms for their children.

The garden

Mark Litherland, church warden at St Mark's said: "Due to its success we were able to provide 500 uniforms in August this year to local families.

"We are open all year and provide whole uniforms for all local schools and are able to help anyone free of charge.

"Because of its success we now need larger storage facilities to help us continue to help our regular customers and the growing number of new ones.

"It's vital that we can continue to help the growing number of people requesting our help in such a deprived area."

Plant sales

Meanwhile, volunteers grew more than 500 vegetables and flowers on the Gamble Memorial Hall premises.

The veg harvest in church

"We have been encouraged by the interest of children and families who attend our meetings in wanting to take part in this," added Martin.

"We would like to start an Eco Garden, where we teach children about planting and growing things, both to eat and enjoy; this is something that many of them would never have the opportunity to do elsewhere.

"We hope to replace an old portacabin with a new eco structure to combine storage and gardening needs."