The Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Tom Hayes has today announced that over 200 community food projects received grant funding from the GIY Get Ireland Growing Fund in 2015. The initiative is run in association with AIB.

This year GIY received over 300 applications from community projects around Ireland, seeking funding of almost €1m. The Fund will support a diverse range of community food-growing projects nationwide including school and community gardens, GIY groups, Men’s Sheds and more.

The awards event highlighted the wave of projects supported by the Get Ireland Growing campaign over the last three years which is putting food back at the centre of Irish communities and helping people to live healthier, happier and more sustainable lives.

Some of the flagship projects that will be supported this year include a fruit-tree planting initiative in Bray schools; an allotment project at RTE; food-growing gardens for Asylum Seekers in Clonakilty and Sligo; a community garden by the Irish Wheelchair Association in Carlow; a horticultural project for unemployed men in Waterford that supplies salads to restaurants; a community garden to reduce isolation on Inishboffin, and a Children's Hope garden in Dublin providing training and enterprise for young people with intellectual disabilities.

AIB’s Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, Jennifer Brady said, "AIB has been delighted to partner with GIY over the last number of years, and this is our third year supporting GIY’s Get Ireland Growing Fund, helping thousands of people and hundreds of communities to grow their own food.

It is fantastic to see the impact of these projects on local communities, and to support the volunteers who work selflessly to improve the quality of life for members of these communities around the country."

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