News / Veg growers extend crowdfunding target
SOCIAL enterprise Transition Turriefield has extended its crowdfunding campaign after reaching its initial £5,000 target.
The westside vegetable growers have now set a new goal of £10,000.
Any money raised over £5,000 will go towards more educational work with schools, making its site at Sandness more accessible for the less physically able and setting up a ‘pay it forward’ veg boxes scheme for low income households.
It currently provides two low income households with ‘wonky veg’, but it would like to be able to widen this strand of the scheme.
Transition Turriefield, which has been run by Alan Robertson and Penny Armstrong for about a decade, launched the campaign in March in a bid to “secure the long term sustainability” of the project.
The first £5,000 is to be used for increasing production through the purchase of items like polytunnels, irrigation systems and wood.
The team needed to reach £5,000 before the funding was ‘unlocked’, meaning if they had failed to hit that target then pledges from the public would have been returned.
Armstrong said: “We chose this crowdfunding option because we need a minimum of £5,000 to keep the project going.
“We have to make it financially sustainable or we can’t continue. We believe in the importance of local food for our community and know our customers and volunteers do too.”
The crowdfunding campaign is due to run until 27 April.
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