New England Mutual is the latest business to be involved in the ongoing development of BEST Food Garden.
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The garden, located at BEST Tree Tenders Nursery, was established by the nursery to provide meaningful activities for people with a disability and unemployed jobseekers.
The garden provides clients from Connections, a disability service provider, and BEST Employment Ltd’s jobseekers located in Inverell with ongoing activities at the BEST Food Garden, where they grow and harvest vegetables.
The Connections clients then deliver the produce free of charge to elderly and other disadvantaged members of the Inverell community.
BEST Tree Tenders donate the land, all the vegetable seedlings and staff to oversee and carry out the ongoing maintenance of the garden.
A number of other businesses, individuals and community groups have provided materials and time to keep the garden producing, including mulch, fertilisers, machinery and equipment.
New England Mutual is the latest organisation to become involved after Inverell Branch Manager Debbie Shepherd became aware that the garden would benefit from the installation of more irrigation so the garden could be expanded to produce more vegetables. On behalf of New England Mutual, Debbie presented a cheque for $1000 to BEST Employment’s CEO, Penny Alliston-Hall, and BEST Tree Tenders Production Manager Danny Middleton.
“We are very grateful to Debbie and New England Mutual for their generous support,” Mrs Alliston-Hall said.
“BEST Food Garden was established to provide disadvantaged members of our community with a meaningful activity and healthy vegetables free of charge.
“Through kind donations like this, BEST Food Garden will continue to grow.”
The donation will be used to install additional irrigation that will allow for more vegetables to be grown.
“With New England Mutual’s donation we are now able to expand our production enabling us to help a lot more people in the Inverell community,” Mr Middleton said. “The support BEST Food Garden has received by local businesses and individual has been fantastic and we would like thank everyone who has supported this project.”