By BRIDGET COOK
A GRANT has made a dream become a reality for the Hampton Park Community Garden.
This month Connections UnitingCare and Uniting Place, who run the community garden, received the first $5000 grant through SITA Australia’s Community Grant Program.
Minister Mat Harry said the money would go towards running a 10-week ‘Growing Together’ program, which they hope to get up and running by February next year.
“It is aimed at getting families together and providing them with an opportunity to build and foster their relationship whilst having fun growing vegetables in the sustainable community garden,” he said.
“We had a dream to run a program like this, and now that has become a reality because of the funding from SITA.
“It has allowed us to stop dreaming and start working on this.
“We are just extremely grateful for SITA for supporting this initiative.”
SITA is now calling for other grant applications from the Casey community, with not for profit organisations able to apply for monetary grants between $500 and $5000.
SITA Victorian general manager Daniel Fyfe said they had a long history of supporting a range of community initiatives and was committed to long-term positive outcomes in the communities in which they operated.
“We are aware of the important role grass roots organisations play in contributing to the sustainability of local communities and it is for this reason that we have launched the national Community Grants Program,” he said.
“We could not find a more worthy recipient of our first community grant than the Hampton Park Community Garden and are delighted to have them partnering with us in the launch.”
Grant applications will close on 31 January next year.
For more information or to make an online grant application visit www.sitacommunitygrants.com.au.
