A Speke-based community garden is using their recent grant to encourage people t make more sustainable choices.
Grow Speke’s Mint Meals, Minus Waste program shows people how to cook proper meals, use the right ingredients and learn how to check food dates.
They were awarded the £7,842 grant in November 2025 by Merseyside Waste Disposal which aims to reduce household food waste across south Liverpool.
Grow Speke is a community hub which grows their own produce and provides an outlet for locals to learn new skills and about all things sustainable.
They are both run by volunteers, which are led by Groundwork CLM, and delivered in partnership with South Liverpool Homes.
Speke-Garston is in the top 10% of most deprived areas in Liverpool according to the IMD 2025, making this community hub a local hero.
Ian Jones, senior conservation officer at Grow Speke said: “Grow Speke in terms of its community involvement, it’s a place where anyone can come to.
“So it’s quite a social project, we like to feel that we’re welcoming here – we’ve got an open house, open door policy. So, it’s about engaging with different people from different walks of the community.”
“We’ve worked in partnership with Squash Liverpool Nutrition, a really good organisation, really good trainers. The two trainers who’ve come in have taught the community and the volunteers who come here a lot more about food and cooking skills.
“The produce we do grow on here, they showed us different ways to cook, use, and preserve food.”
Grow Speke work in partnership with The Market Place, by providing fruit, vegetables and other items where members can buy food, toiletries and household items at a subsidised rate.
Laura Murphy, community investment project officer for The Market Place said:
“The marketplace is a community pantry. We operate from our office in Speke; it’s for South Liverpool Homes tenants.
“So, any tenant can be a member and they just fill out an application form, and they can pay three pounds a week and they can visit the shop once a week.
“The residents that do come here, they see it as a bit of a space where they can come – we try and make it so that it’s a shopping experience.
“They come and they pick their own items, they can come and have a coffee and do some of the activities that we put on in our marketplace social space as well. So it’s not just a shop, it’s not a food bank and we see really positive impact from that.”
Featured image: Ian Jones
