The money will go towards weekly gardening sessions open to local people with a history of drug and alcohol addiction

Gardening workshop attendees, Credit: Maximus Foundation/St Mary’s Church

St Mary’s Church in Walthamstow has been awarded £7,000 for their gardening skills programme which supports people recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.

Their new year-long project will be run in collaboration with Change Grow Live (CGL) , an addiction support charity, to offer weekly garden sessions to local people.

The church says its sessions will focus on the health and wellbeing benefits of getting out into nature, whilst providing skills that could help people find work.

The money comes from the Maximus Foundation’s Local Impact Fund which supports charities and community organisations across South and East London.

So far the charity has awarded £93,000 in 16 community projects and initiatives across London.

Tim Hewitt, head gardener at St Mary’s, said: “We are really pleased to be strengthening our ties

with CGL, our near neighbours, and supporting their clients through purposeful gardening. It is great that the grant also strengthens our relationship with Maximus UK, who we have worked with for several years.

This grant enables us to build on our already strong record of using gardening to benefit the local community.”

Fatima Iqbal, social value manager at Maximus, said: “The Local Impact Fund offers grants to small and medium-sized charities, social enterprises, and community organisations to tackle a range of key issues across London.

These grants enable Maximus to leave a lasting legacy beyond the Restart Scheme, and it’s great to help fund our strategic charity partner, St Mary’s Walthamstow, where we have sent Restart Scheme colleagues to volunteer and support their work tackling community development and the environment in Walthamstow. St Mary’s provides meaningful support to the community and it’s important we continue to support them.”

The churchyard was named ‘Churchyard of the Year 2023’ in the London in Bloom competition and remains open to volunteers to help maintain the area.

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