Caldmore Community Garden is a volunteer-run space which was set up in 2011 on a piece of derelict land in Caldmore, Walsall. During the pandemic we had to close our building - Caldmore Community House - and keep the Garden open only for volunteers.
At the heart of what we do we have always had bringing people together across cultures, experiences, and now it seems even in lockdown. Our main tool has always been gardening, nature, creativity and play, and we have decided to use the same method to reach out to communities across Walsall with our activity packs - gardening, crafts, knitting and crochet. The packs are free and are aimed predominantly at children, but whole family can take part. People sign up online, our volunteers prepare them and deliver to people’s doorstep. So far we have had almost 200 separate pack requests for around 600 children. We will continue to make them until lockdown eases and / or children go back to school… Our volunteers have also been making laundry bags for the health service - more than a 1000 of them have now been delivered to Walsall Manor Hospital, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Dorothy Pattisons, Ambulance Service and others.
