Marbury Road Edible Garden
The Marbury Road Edible Garden is a volunteer-led initiative in located in an affluent area of Stockport but was created for residents living in social housing often face significant economic hardship and social exclusion. The garden was created to provide free access to fresh food and offer a space for community connection. The project focuses on improving mental and physical health, supporting drug recovery, and addressing social isolation. Through regular gardening sessions, it offers a therapeutic environment where participants can develop life skills, build confidence, and experience personal growth.
What will the Kao SEED Fund support?
The Social Therapeutic Horticulture Sessions at Marbury Road Edible Garden provide a therapeutic space where participants engage in gardening activities to improve their mental and physical wellbeing. The sessions use the benefits of nature and horticulture to support individuals with mental health challenges, stress, and anxiety. The programme focuses on creating a calm, supportive environment where participants can learn gardening skills while also enhancing resilience, self-sufficiency, and overall wellness. By offering these sessions, the garden aims to make horticultural therapy accessible to individuals who face barriers to participating in such activities due to financial or social constraints.
Who is the project helping support?
Despite the overall wealth of the area, residents living in poverty often feel overlooked and disconnected. The project was created to address the significant disparity between the affluence of the surrounding community and the struggles faced by those in social housing. These individuals frequently experience extreme poverty, limited access to essential services like food pantries, and social isolation. By offering much-needed support, the project aims to bridge these gaps, providing vital resources that improve their quality of life, foster community connections, and ease some of the pressures associated with living in poverty.
This fund will allow us to reach our harder-to-engage and young neighbours, and it means we can do social therapeutic horticulture with them, which will be run by a trained practitioner, who also used to be a volunteer with us – all thanks to Kao Data’s SEED Fund. 
Kell Degnen, from Marbury Road Edible Garden, in Heaton Chapel
Impact of the project
The project aims to improve participants’ lives by building self-sufficiency skills and resilience, especially for those with mental health challenges or neurodiversities. Progress will be tracked through impact stars, helping participants access nature, healthy food, and work experience. Volunteers will also gain skills in session planning and organization, improving future sessions. Additionally, the project’s data tracking system will be refined and shared as a resource for other volunteer groups to measure their impact.