Kilmallie Gets Growing
Kilmallie Community Fridge and Garden
Our garden space isn’t huge—around 100 square metres—but we’ve learned so much together. One day, we’d love to start an orchard or forest garden, and maybe even have a protected growing space. For now, we’re proud that alongside growing food, we’re growing our community. It’s lovely to see the bonds forming and the connections deepening.
Kilmallie in the Highlands, is a small rural community of circa 1,000 people. Fresh, locally grown food is available (through a fortnightly/monthly food coop and market) but not in the capacity needed. A crisis response to covid led by the village community council now sees this Highland rural community taking a positive, proactive response to their food vulnerabilities, growing local connections and community through food. Co- founder and project worker Carol Anne reflects on the Kilmallie story and shares their ambition for a more food resilient Kilmallie.
Kilmallie Community Fridge and Garden, now a charity in its own right, grew from our local response to the COVID pandemic. A team of us began by picking up shopping, prescriptions, and eventually surplus food from supermarkets to distribute around the village. In August 2021, with funding from Hubbub, we established the Kilmallie Community Fridge and joined the Community Fridge Network.
The Kilmallie Community Centre became the natural home for our fridge, with the foyer open at all times as part of the Highland Comfort Scheme. We’d considered putting the fridge and freezer in an external shed, but with the centre being open daily—and with just four volunteers at the time—it made more sense to keep everything under one roof. It saved us the effort of maintaining a separate building.
Now, our amazing team of volunteers has grown dramatically. We collect surplus food from local supermarkets seven nights a week and are saving, on average, a tonne of food from going to landfill every month.
I approached the community centre about developing a small garden area at the back, and our garden group has gone from strength to strength. We now run a range of activities and events in the garden and the centre throughout the year. The community centre has benefited too—with a raised profile, more footfall, and a growing role as a vibrant hub in our area. Lots of people in Kilmallie do have their own gardens, but not always the time or resources to turn them into productive food-growing spaces. Gardening together as a community means we can share the work, the skills, and the joy. Last year, in partnership with the Highland Community Waste Partnership, we ran a food composting pilot where local households brought their food scraps to a central hot bin at our community composting site. It’s been really exciting—people have started taking an interest in composting and in the life of the soil. (We even had a microscope so folk could see what’s going on under the surface!) And on top of that, we’ve reduced the amount of household food waste going into landfill.
We believe food sovereignty, localising supply, and using sustainable food systems are so important—especially in rural communities. Thanks to funding and support, we’ve been able to run a range of low-cost and free workshops and events, sometimes on our own and sometimes in partnership. All to help people grow and enjoy fresh, healthy, nutritious food. We’ve explored everything from microgreens (ideal for small indoor spaces) to mushrooms (which grow brilliantly in the Highlands), to DIY worm farms, seed saving, food preservation, a Nettle Day, and an Apple Day with community apple pressing. We even took part in Lochaber’s first Climate Action Fair. All of this shows what we can grow—and what’s possible when communities come together. This year, alongside our regular gardening sessions, we’re running four full-day seasonal foraging workshops with a local herbalist. In the mornings we’ll be out foraging, learning what’s wild and edible in our own area, and in the afternoons we’ll make something together back at the centre. We’re also looking into cookery sessions to help people make nutritious meals while cutting down on food waste.Running these workshops, and joining others in the area, has been a brilliant way to get more people engaged—not just with food, but with each other and our shared space.