help@

We are here to help communities grow food.

Help@ is a free advisory service for people looking to start or grow more food with others in their community. Offering specialist and technical advice, our service understands, enables, and can accelerate vital work that is taking root in communities across Scotland. We can help you develop and grow your vision, tackle problems, and identify solutions to transform your ideas into reality.  

It can sometimes feel overwhelming to get and keep growing, so our service is open-ended, enabling us to support you with what you need to know when you need to know it.  So, if you want to start to grow or develop your food, whether it be on an unloved street corner or a large open field, we’d love to hear from you. 

Help@ is delivered by GrowGreen Scotland and the Community Land Advisory Service with inspiration, insight and learning from partners and folk on the ground. It covers a wide range of
topics, including developing and growing a vision, sourcing and
securing land, working together safely, governance, and navigating local planning. We have many years of experience working directly with communities across Scotland in a range of settings.

All queries from groups, new or established, and or partners and enablers are
welcome.

 

Recently asked questions: 

  • I’ve recently moved back to the city, who can I connect with to access land?
  • We need support with developing our idea to transform an open field into a community food growing space for the town.  
  • We’d like to take our village growing to the next level but we need a land agreement and advice and guidance on risk and liability. 
  • Can we talk through how our group could partner with other local agencies on ways to distribute food waste ?
  • Our small voluntary garden group feels like it’s running out of steam, can you please help us work through our options? 
  • We’ve been told we need planning permission for our growing project, can you help us with this?

“ I don’t want another organisation to signpost me to yet another pamphlet I need to read. I want to talk with someone who understands the issues and can connect me with others with direct experience to share.”

In 2023-2024, we supported over 70 unique enquiries from communities and local and national partners looking to support food-growing activity in their area. This unique service is confidential and responsive, providing support on a wide range of topics, with specialist and grassroots knowledge, when you need it. Many groups access the service on multiple occasions, getting support to progress their project and keep it going. 

We look forward to hearing from you.