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Greener Kirkcaldy

Going Greener Together

Cooking for confidence: Lyndsay’s journey as a Community Food Volunteer

Cooking for confidence: Lyndsay’s journey as a Community Food Volunteer

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CommunityArchives , Food & GrowingArchives

Cooking for confidence: Lyndsay’s journey as a Community Food Volunteer

Posted on 10 November 2023 by Rory Syme

Hi, my name is Lyndsay and I volunteer at Greener Kirkcaldy as a Community Food Volunteer.

As part of my work in the NHS I helped a variety of groups to gain the skills and confidence to start to cook for themselves and their families. It was incredibly rewarding and it gave me a great sense of achievement. I have always loved to cook. I see myself as a somewhat adventurous cook as long as there is no fish involved. I don’t do fish – too many bones!

When I retired in September 2021, I wanted to look for ways to use my skills to help other people learn how to cook! Eating well and cooking from scratch is so important, not only for your health and wellbeing but for your purse too! However, messages are confusing and this is where my skills and knowledge could be put to good use!

An opportunity arose at Greener Kirkcaldy for a Community Food Volunteer to assist in various cooking classes that they run – this was just what I was looking for. Helping Jackie deliver our Smart Cooking and Kids Cooking classes is hard work but very rewarding – especially when you see the changes that people make. It’s great to watch them go from ‘I can’t’ or ‘I don’t like’ to ‘I can do this!’ and ‘that’s actually quite nice!”.

First Aid Training

Kitchens can be quite a dangerous place to work in. They are full of hazards like sharp knives and hot pans. If you are not careful, accidents can happen. Greener Kirkcaldy is an organisation that really looks after its volunteers and offers training to ensure we’re all up to speed with things like food hygiene, to make sure we are confident volunteers. When I was asked to consider attending a formal first aid course, I felt that this would be a very worthwhile course to do, especially as I work in the kitchen, so I signed up.

The course was very informative. It mixed theory and practical activities with a few ‘gory’ pictures thrown in! It was intense but after completing a wee quiz I was presented with my certificate and I  can now call myself a ‘First Aider at Work.’ Fingers crossed that I never have to use my skills but I will feel more confident to help if someone I am working with has an accident.

Lyndsay Clark, Community Food Volunteer

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Going Greener Together – Trustee stories

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Climate ActionArchives , CommunityArchives , Energy AdviceArchives , Food & GrowingArchives , Town DevelopmentArchives , TravelArchives , VolunteeringArchives

Going Greener Together – Trustee stories

Posted on 13 November 2023 by Andrea

Last week was Trustees Week, and as part of this we spoke to our board of trustees to learn a bit more about them and why they enjoy volunteering at Greener Kirkcaldy. We shared these stories on social media throughout Trustees Week and have now compiled the stories into a handy little blog so you can read them all together.

So let’s meet the trustees…

Christine May – Chair

I volunteered to be a trustee so that I could use the skills and knowledge gained throughout a varied career to help a charity whose aims I have always supported.

Greener Kirkcaldy raises awareness of the climate emergency and helps with energy efficiency, food, travel and transport and community cohesion. It offers access to support, information and opportunities to everybody in Kirkcaldy, and for some of our programmes, across Fife.

We have something for all ages and work with many other local and national organisations to help reduce the impact of the serious problems facing the planet and our communities. I hope that we make a positive difference to all those we work with.

Matthew Gardiner

Like many of my fellow volunteers, I was drawn to Greener Kirkcaldy through its strong values – which I share. I also have a genuine desire to make a positive difference for our community and the planet.

As a trustee, I’ve gained great fulfilment from witnessing the organisation’s evolution and growth. This means we can reach more people and have an even greater transformative impact, here in Kirkcaldy and beyond.

I can’t overstate the impact of Greener Kirkcaldy. The charity continues to be a keystone in our community. Every year we see impressive levels of engagement with our services. But the impact is clearest through the individual stories that lie beneath these statistics.

I’m especially heartened by accounts of people. Whether they have accessed financial entitlements, developed confidence by learning new skills, embraced lifestyle changes that and the planet or discovered our embracing community. Even so, I – and everyone at Greener Kirkcaldy – recognise that we still have work to do to make our support even more accessible.

Pat Crosbie

I have been a trustee of Greener Kirkcaldy for eight years. Personally, I believe we have a duty to do all we can to protect the environment for future generations. We should take positive action to reduce our carbon footprint and encourage and support other people to do the same. Individual actions, however small, matter.

Greener Kirkcaldy supports these values through several projects and helps to reduce inequalities through supporting people in food and fuel poverty. It’s a privilege to be able to spend time supporting a community-led organisation.

Greener Kirkcaldy supports the local community through food and energy projects. The numbers are impressive and speak for themselves. In the past year alone, Greener Kirkcaldy served 2,500 community meals, delivered over 3,500 energy advice sessions and made 1,800 handy service visits supporting households to save energy through measures such as hanging thermal curtains.

Such measures, as well as improving people’s wellbeing, have saved over £1.5 million for households throughout Fife. Most of the money people have saved will be spent locally. Greener Kirkcaldy also aims to raise awareness about the climate emergency and the positive actions individuals can take to reduce their carbon footprint.

Andrew McDaniel

I have been a Greener Kirkcaldy volunteer for over ten years. My volunteering activities have included being a trustee (including several years as Chair), advising on fundraising and social enterprise development, sitting on interview panels and helping at the recent cyclocross race and various other events.

I have recently retired but continue to volunteer, as it gives me a sense of purpose and there are always new challenges. As a keen cyclist, I have enjoyed supporting Lang Toun Cycles, which has involved everything from interviewing new staff members to collecting unwanted bikes for renovation.

Greener Kirkcaldy is a community-led organisation, which engages people from all walks of life in support of a low-carbon agenda. It provides a wide range of services to help local people live a more sustainable lifestyle. This includes using their cars less and growing their own food. We also help people to reduce their energy costs and to live healthily within a budget.

Carol Kennedy

I started as a member of Greener Kirkcaldy and found the aims and objectives resonated with me. When I saw they were looking for board members it looked like an opportunity to get involved.

Greener Kirkcaldy offers lots of useful information and advice as well as practical steps. We help people improve their energy use through Cosy Kingdom and offer advice on who to contact for further help.

George McDermid

I’ve been volunteering with Greener Kirkcaldy for some time. First in the community garden at Ravenscraig Walled Garden and then as a Cycle Leader when we first started led-rides. I helped out at the first ever Kirkcaldy Cycling Festival. I also sat on the Steering Group when Lang Toun Cycles was envisioned and then became reality.

Joining the trustees on the Management Committee seems a natural progression of my volunteering journey with Greener Kirkcaldy. It’s a great way to immerse myself in an organisation whose values and drive I greatly admire.

I have seen first-hand the positive impact simple activities such as, ‘dust down your old bike and let’s go for a short ride’ can make. The confidence boost to people who thought they weren’t able or not fit enough or didn’t know where they could cycle away from traffic is remarkable. Likewise in the garden. ‘Let’s grow vegetables from seed’, an activity undreamt of by many, is made accessible to anyone who wishes to come along and try.

Thank you!

We would like to thank our board of trustees for their support and hard work towards a fairer and greener future locally.

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, please have a look at some of our volunteer opportunities.

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Greener Kirkcaldy wins Holyrood’s Climate Community Award

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Climate ActionArchives , CommunityArchives

Greener Kirkcaldy wins Holyrood’s Climate Community Award

Posted on 17 November 2023 by Rory Syme

Greener Kirkcaldy was the winner of the Climate Community Award at this year’s Holyrood Climate Action Awards. Our team went to  Edinburgh to rub shoulders with some incredible people and organisations who are taking action to tackle the climate emergency all across Scotland.  Huge thanks to Fife Voluntary Action for nominating us for this amazing award!

Our Chief Executive Lauren Brook said: “Winning the Climate Community Award is a huge honour. It recognises the hard work and achievements of our current and previous staff, volunteers, trustees, members and our community to address the climate crisis. I’d like to thank Fife Voluntary Action for kindly nominating us.

“Our activities are designed to support people to tackle the climate emergency. We help households throughout Fife with energy saving advice. We’re encouraging more people to walk and cycle for short journeys. We help people learn to grow their own produce and encourage them to eat more local, seasonal and plant-based food. We also provide training and events to increase climate literacy and knowledge.

“We pride ourselves in being community-led. All of our projects meet the needs and aspirations of local people. This award is for everyone in our community.

“Reaching Scotland’s targets to cut carbon emissions is only possible if people come together to take action. It was incredibly inspiring to attend the award ceremony and hear about some of the amazing people and organisations who are confronting the challenges of the climate emergency.”

How we’re helping to tackle the climate emergency

Our work helps people and organisations to reduce their carbon footprint. In 2022/2023, Greener Kirkcaldy’s activities saved 46,729 tonnes of carbon. This is equivalent to 27,320 return flights from Edinburgh to New York.

We are committed to reducing our environmental impact and have set a target to become carbon-neutral by 2030. We have taken steps including introducing an Ethical Food Policy, making our community building more energy efficient and becoming a Climate Literate Organisation.

Greener Kirkcaldy is the lead partner in Climate Action Fife. This is a Fife-wide partnership project, bringing together individuals, communities, local government and businesses to tackle the climate emergency and make Fife a greener and fairer place to live.

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Help Fuel Fife Folk: Lucy’s Story

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Help Fuel Fife Folk: Lucy’s Story

Posted on 23 November 2023 by Rory Syme

Lucy is a vulnerable adult living with autism & learning difficulties. She lives independently in a cold and draughty flat. She was referred to our energy advisors because the cost-of-living crisis caused her essential living expenses to exceed her income. This was creating a great deal of stress, worry and anxiety.

We supported Lucy to take control of her energy use and helped her understand why her energy costs had increased. We provided her with some simple tips to reduce her bills, such as adjusting her heating controls. We also helped her apply for the Warm Home Discount.

As Lucy was anxious about using her heating, we provided her support through our handy service to help her keep warm, including installing a set of thermal curtains in her living room and providing her with an electric throw. We also installed some LED bulbs and reflective radiator panels in her home.

Thanks to our help, Lucy was less concerned about her energy costs and was able to stay on top of her bills without impacting her ability to stay warm at home. The support from our handy service meant she would be able to keep her home warm more affordably. This freed up some of her budget to help deal with other living expenses, such as food.

“The energy company was swallowing all my benefits. I was grinding my teeth at night with stress until Cosy Kingdom was able to help fix everything for me. I’m so thankful for all of your help.” Lucy

You can help people like Lucy stay warm this winter and deal with the impact of the cost-of-living crisis. Donate to our Help Fuel Fife Folk Campaign.

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Cycling towards a greener Scotland

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Cycling towards a greener Scotland

Posted on 29 November 2023 by Rory Syme

Greener Kirkcaldy’s Cycling Outreach team attended Cycling Scotland’s Annual Conference in October. This year’s theme was “Cycling towards a healthier, fairer, safer and greener Scotland”.

We arrived at the John McIntyre Conference Centre in Glasgow by bike on a damp morning. We were pleased there was space for our bikes on the train, which isn’t always the case!

In the exhibition area, Cyclehoop showed examples of good, safe cycle storage. Grease Monkey demonstrated a bike repair station. Some of the delegates made use of this facility, as they got a flat while cycling to the venue!

Inspiring speakers

There were a wide range of keynote speakers at the conference.

Prof Devi Sridhar spoke first. She highlighted the importance of how active travel can improve the health of millions of people by improving air quality in urban areas. It is not only people commuting by walking or wheeling that benefit. She spoke about how action comes from the community. We, the people who vote, create action and change. She used a brilliant example of the Netherlands.

Professor Devi Sridhar explained how tragic accidents in the Netherlands sparked a travel revolution. © Roddy Scott / Cycling Scotland

Contrary to popular belief, people in the Netherlands did not always love cycling. After the Second World War cars became the main form of transport until the 1970s. The community, through protest and campaigning, created the changes. In 1971, 400 children were killed by cars in one year. This spurred the creation of a Safer Roads campaign which changed the country forever.

Patrick Harvie, Co-Leader of the Scottish Greens, gave an update. The Scottish Government has pledged further support for active travel (with £320m ring-fenced in next year’s budget, 10% of the transport budget).

Sally Thomas, the Chief Executive of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, called for more work to be done within Scotland’s more deprived areas and to support people living in these areas with active travel.

A positive drive for cycling in Scotland

We’re really happy that we attended the conference. It helped us build our relationship with our current partners, such as Fife Council and Cycling Scotland, as we were able to share Greener Kirkcaldy’s ambitions and discuss how we can work together. We also benefited from talking to SPOKES, the campaigning group, who can support our work by providing advice from their years of experience.

We left energised and excited about the positive drive for cycling in Scotland. It was great to see that there are many organisations across Scotland working towards similar goals as our own.

Peter Wooding, Development Worker (Cycling Outreach)

Find out more about our cycling and walking projects. 

 

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Volunteering helps grow connections in the community

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Food & GrowingArchives , VolunteeringArchives

Volunteering helps grow connections in the community

Posted on 5 December 2023 by Rory Syme

Cathy Robertson recently joined our team of volunteers at our Training Garden at Ravenscraig Walled Garden. She explains how volunteering has helped her make new connections with people in Kirkcaldy.

I’m originally from Edinburgh but moved to Kirkcaldy in late January 2023 as I would be taking early retirement in March. I have no connections to Kirkcaldy and knew no-one here so I thought volunteering would be a good way to fit in and contribute to the community.  I chose Greener Kirkcaldy as I have a long term interest in all things environmental and climate-related and I love to garden. (I’m not very good at it but I’m learning).

I’ve now been volunteering in the training garden at Ravenscraig for a couple of months and I’m loving it. The team there are so incredibly welcoming, volunteers and workers alike, I feel like I fitted in right from day one. Tea breaks are fun with all of us sitting down together for a blether. I also enjoyed the volunteer harvest celebration where so many of us got together for a lovely meal, a bit of prize giving, an excellent quiz (my team won!) and a lot of laughter. I’ve made a couple of friends I’m now seeing outside of the garden, a step into Kirkcaldy social life that’s proving most enjoyable!

The social side of things is lovely and for me there’s the added bonus of getting my fingers into the soil, so good for our mental health. I always feel so much better after a couple of hours getting mud under my nails. Growing your own food is a joy I’d love to see so many other people share.

Food really does taste better when you pulled it from the ground yourself. Fresh pressed apple juice is quite simply manna. Us volunteers are allowed to take home some of the produce grown at Ravenscraig. Between that and the little bit I can grow in my own tiny garden, I’ve managed to avoid plastic wrapped veggies from the supermarket pretty much all summer.

This is not my first experience of volunteering. It all started way back in the mid 1980’s when I took myself off to Israel to volunteer on a Kibbutz. The Kibbutz is where I learned to cook, catering for 1,000 people. Nothing like going in at the deep end!

My most recent volunteer experience was with Volunteer Services Overseas (VSO) when I went out to Vanuatu for two years. I am a qualified accountant and my role was to teach accounting skills to local people. This enabled them to set up properly transparent systems that would allow aid to flow. I’m delighted to say that thanks to the hard work, enthusiasm and intelligence of the Vanuatu people it worked out very well.

Future plans

I hope to expand my work with Greener Kirkcaldy by completing walk leader training and becoming a Walking Volunteer. This town has so many beautiful places to walk, it would be icing on the cake to help others enjoy them. If you are considering volunteering I would heartily recommend Greener Kirkcaldy. The warmth of the welcome, the banter and the opportunity to learn new skills and meet new people is enriching.

Cathy Robertson, Gardening and Growing Volunteer

Find out more about Greener Kirkcaldy’s volunteering opportunities. 

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