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Inspiring community project wins Guardian award

03 Oct 2014

Hulme Community Garden Centre comes second – thanks to your votes!

Hulme Community Garden Centre

Hulme Community Garden Centre has come second in a competition to find the most inspiring community projects in the Guardian newspaper.

And it was all down to votes from friends of the Centre and University colleagues of Michelle Inwood, who appealed for support on StaffNet last month.

Michelle works as a weekend volunteer at the Centre, which entered the Guardian newspaper’s Live Better Challenge Community Project Award.

Once a wasteland, this community garden centre is a fruitful learning and therapeutic resource for inner-city Manchester.

Michelle, who conducts contact lens clinical trials in Optometry, said: “I had so many messages from people to say they had voted and to wish us luck, which was lovely. We are so pleased to win an award.”

She explained: “We are here to inspire, educate and heal, and of course offer a huge range of plants for sale throughout the year. Our public gardens are alive with birds and insects who appreciate our strict chemical free practices, and the several annual events we hold get bigger and better every year.”

Hulme Community Garden Centre was one of 17 inspiring community projects up for the Guardian vote and won £500 as its second place prize.