Update on our Community Food Hub

We’re making progress towards our aim of developing an ambitious new project – a Community Food Hub for Kirkcaldy.

We’ve now bought town centre premises which will house the project. The property, on Kirkcaldy’s East Fergus Place, was purchased with a grant from the Scottish Land Fund, a Scottish Government initiative which gives funding and support to help communities take ownership of land and buildings for projects to benefit local people.

We now need to raise additional funding to refurbish the building and fit it out as a Community Food Hub. Once complete, it will be a place for people to come together to grow, cook, eat and learn, and will centre on a fully equipped training kitchen with 8 workstations, and a kitchen garden growing fresh ingredients. The Food Hub will offer a range of volunteering, work experience, training and learning opportunities around food production and preparation, including courses to help people on low incomes eat well and make the most of their food budgets.

It will also host a wide range of events, courses and workshops on all aspects of food and drink – plans include Beginners bread-making, Indian Vegetarian Cooking and even gin-tasting evenings! A food Coop promoting local and seasonal produce is also planned.

Greener Kirkcaldy’s Development Manager, Suzy Goodsir, said “We’re really excited to have secured this property for the benefit of the community. Its location, right in the town centre, is perfect for our Food Hub project which will be a resource for everyone in Kirkcaldy. We’re going to be working with loads of other organisations on this project – from NHS Fife to Kirkcaldy Food Bank and lots of community and voluntary groups who are keen to use the training kitchen with their members. We’re now fund-raising for the refurbishment and fit out of the building, and we hope to be able to open its doors to the public by early next year.”

The town centre Food Hub will also complement our new Training Garden at Ravenscraig Walled Garden which will offer courses, training and volunteer opportunities in gardening and growing your own fruit and vegetables.

If you’d like to find out more or get involved with the project, see our Food Hub project page, call us on 01592 858458, or email info@greenerkirkcaldy.org.uk.