## **GROW LEWISHAM TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT 2024** ## **1[ST] January 2024 to 31[st] December 2024** ## **Charity name: Grow Lewisham** ## **Charity Registration Number: 1206030** ## **1. Objectives and Activities** ## **1.1 Summary of the purposes of the charity** - _To work towards all Lewisham residents and surrounding areas having access to regenerative urban growing spaces within their local areas._ - _To support the local and wider community by providing the skills and resources they need to support themselves and those in need to grow and share their knowledge of growing practices._ - _To provide fresh organic sustainable food to those most in need and who suffer from food poverty through linking up with community food providers e.g. food banks/ community kitchens._ - _To develop and increase regenerative urban growing to mitigate the effects of climate change through local production, reduced food miles, soil regeneration and increased biodiversity._ - _To work with partners to build a network that connects with existing food and growing groups to make a sustainable borough wide food system._ - _To promote community cohesion and mutual aid within the borough of Lewisham._ ## **1.2 Summary of the main activities in relation to those purposes for the public benefit, in particular, the activities, projects or services identified in the accounts.** The main activities of Grow Lewisham during 2024 have been: - Maintaining The Plot Community Garden - Supporting the Herbal Plot and other community growing spaces - Supporting and taking an active role in the Lewisham Food Growing Network - Recruiting and supporting volunteers - Campaigning for the ‘Right to Grow’ and to stop the use of herbicides / pesticides in Lewisham - Fundraising - Working with local partners and communities to promote local food growing - Running free workshops and events thereby increasing skills and supporting further activities - Becoming a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) with the Charity Commission and setting up required systems and policies, including improving our financial systems. - Creating a new community orchard space - Producing and delivering fresh produce to Lewisham Foodbanks ## **1.3 Statement confirming whether the trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit** The Trustees have regarded the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit. ## **1.4 Additional information** ## **Contribution made by volunteers:** Volunteers are involved across all of Grow Lewisham’s activities from the individual growing sites to the Steering Group. Whilst we keep records of numbers of volunteers attending sessions and activities we don’t at present record the numbers of hours monthly / annually that are contributed. ## **2. Achievements and Performance** **Summary of the main achievements of the charity, identifying the difference the charity’s work has made to the circumstances of its beneficiaries and any wider benefits to society as a whole.** During 2024 Grow Lewisham achieved the following: ## **● The Plot** Holding workshops, regular gardening sessions and social events. Made links with Lewisham foodbank and grew and donated over 70kg of food crops. Connecting with local residents offering personal or communal growing space **.** We are increasing biodiversity with the renovated pond and are a partner of the London Blue Chain Project run by Froglife. ## **● The Orchard** We have started the preparations for the community orchard at the end of the Oldstead road allotment site. The plans were agreed. flood management and clearing took place and pathways agreed. Planting will take place in Autumn 25 ## **● The Herbal Plot** The Herbal Plot involved residents and volunteers and has links with the sensory garden at Lewisham Hospital. It has extended further to incorporate an orchard area and more growing spaces around the carpark. Julian has completed a course with the Orchard Project, and has made further connections with local groups and organisations. ## **● Bridgehouse Gardens** Bridgehouse Gardens has grown into a forest garden, running regular gardening sessions for the local community. It has completed work on an outdoor classroom. BHG is working towards becoming independent of GL. ## **● Staffing and Volunteers** We employed two part time Lead Gardeners and a Project Manager with funding from the National Lottery - this extends until the end of 2025 giving us the opportunity to plan ahead. Based on the success and learning from this we are working on applications for further funding to increase the hours and duration of the posts. We were able to arrange and pay local practitioners to run free workshops over the sites. Workshops were attended by between 13 and 40 people per session. ## **● Working with local people, groups, communities and organisations** We have made links with the local community at the Plot, including The Queens Walking Group, local residents and the Oldstead Road Allotment Group, enabling us to consult on fruit trees and ideas for the Orchard. We are working with Lewisham Local on the Food Growing Network, linking different growing groups and organisations in the borough. We advised The National Trust on a community growing project at Sayes Court in Deptford, working with Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network, and have worked with artists, including featuring in a high profile exhibition at the Hayward Gallery focused on the environmental and climate crisis. ## **● Building a borough wide food growing network** We have been working with Lewisham Local to build a borough wide food growing network, connecting different growing groups together to share events, workshops, resources and best practice. We help support the quarterly network meetings that take place at different locations across the borough. ## **● Initiating and supporting campaigns** We have been involved in initiating and supporting the Right to Grow in Lewisham - coordinating and sharing ideas with other London Boroughs and Capital Growth. We have started mapping the borough to find suitable places and are working with LL. the food network and Lewisham councillors to push this forward and increase accessibility to Food Growing in the borough. We are supporting a campaign to ban the use of glyphosates by Glendale / LBL. ## **● Fundraising** We successfully secured National Lottery funding to recruit paid workers - a Project Manager and 2 Lead Gardeners. We were funded to build a new shed, providing paid carpentry workshops free to volunteers. We also started work on the outdoor kitchen. The activities of Grow Lewisham have benefited Lewisham residents in the following ways: - Offering free accessible food and growing related activities, workshops and events - Providing free healthy organic food to volunteers and visitors - Increasing and sharing skills related to food - Activating and improving public green spaces - Working in partnership with other groups and organisations in order to maximise reach and benefit - Providing volunteering opportunities - Providing fresh produce to the most needy Lewisham residents. - Providing paid work opportunities - Providing activities and spaces that are welcoming and bring people together - Bringing resources into the Borough through fundraising. ## **3. Financial Review** _See separate report – to be added here for submission to the Charity Commission_ ## **Annual Financial Statements** ## **31 December 2024** **Charity number 1206030** 1 **----- Start of picture text -----**
Charity Name No (if any)
Receipts and payments accounts
CC16a
Period start Period end
For the date date
To
period from
1/1/2024 31/12/2024
**----- End of picture text -----**
**Section A Receipts and payments** |**Section A Receipts and**
**payments**||||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestric**
**ted funds**
**to the**
**nearest £**
**20**
**20**
**40**
**-**
**-**||**Restricte**
**d funds**
**to the**
**nearest £**|**Endowmen**
**t funds**
**to the nearest**
**£**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest**
**£**|**Last year**
**to the**
**nearest £**| |Groundwork London|||**5,000**|**-**|**5,000**|**15,000**| |Lewisham Local||||**-**|**-**|**4,820**| |Metropolitan Parks and
Gardens Association||||**-**|**-**|**1,013**| |National Lottery|||**19,640**|**-**|**19,640**|| |Lewisham Homes||||**-**|**-**|| |Transition Network|||**4,992**|**-**|**4,992**|| |LB Lewisham||||**-**|**-**|| |Donations|||**300**||**300**|**54**| |The Merchant Taylo
Kathleen Faragher|||**1,770**||**1,770**|| ||**20**||||**20**|| |Teggin J T|**20**|||**-**|**20**|| |**_Sub total_**_(Gross_
_income for AR)_|**40**||**31,702**|**-**|**31,742**|**20,887**| |||||||| |**A2 Asset and investment**
**sales,(see table).**||||||| |None in eitheryear|**-**||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**| |||||||| |**_Sub total_**|**-**||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**| 2 _**Total receipts**_ > **31,742 20,887** **40** **31,702** **-** ## **A3 Payments** |**A3 Payments**|||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---| |Project management
(Bridgehouse Gardens and
GrowingNetwork)|**115**
**50**
**142**
**359**
**-**
**35**
**42**
**8**|**600**|**-**|**600**|**13,810**| |Project management||**1,722**|**-**|**1,722**|| |Buildingmaterials||**9**|**-**|**9**|**4,645**| |Coordinator role||**300**|**-**|**300**|**4,413**| |Events||**296**|**-**|**296**|**3,698**| |Workshop delivery||**2,158**||**2,273**|**3,621**| |Leadgrower||**1,275**||**1,275**|**2,475**| |Compost||**293**||**343**|**641**| |Administrative||**1,144**||**1,286**|**368**| |Seeds and plants||**82**||**82**|**359**| |Insurance||||**359**|**303**| |Miscellaneous||**-**||**-**|**83**| |Field trip||**-**||**-**|**44**| |Fixed assets - bike||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**| |Rent||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**| |Fixed assets||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**| |Tools|||**-**|**35**|**-**| |Repairs||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**| |Transport||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**| |Garden sessions||**300**|**-**|**300**|**-**| |Materials||**401**|**-**|**401**|**-**| |Materials/refreshments||**1,012**|**-**|**1,012**|**-**| |Refreshments||**5**|**-**|**47**|**-**| |Workshop||**1,323**|**-**|**1,323**|**-**| |Workshopmaterials|||**-**|**8**|**-**| |Workshop BHG||**525**|**-**|**525**|**-**| |Workshops||**552**|**-**|**552**|**-**| |**_Sub total_**
**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases,(see table)**|**751 -**|**11,997 **|**-**
**- **|**-**
**12,748 **|**-**
**34,460**| ||**-**
**-**
**-**
**751**||||| |Grow Lewisham bike||**-**|**-**|**-**|| |Herbal Plot infrastructure||**-**|**-**|**-**|| |**_Sub total_**
**_Total payments_**||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**| |||**11,997**|**-**|**12,748**|**34,460**| |**_Net of_**
**_receipts/(payments)_**
**- 711**
**A5 Transfers between**
**funds**
**-**|||||| |||**19,705**|**-**|**18,994**|**- 13,573**| |||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**| 3 |**A6 Cash funds last**||||||||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |**year end**|**1,745**|||**3,254**||**-**||**4,999**||**18,545**| |**_Cash funds this year_**||||||||||| |**_end_**|**1,034 **|**0**||**22,959**||**-**||**23,993**||**4,972**| |**Section B Statement of**||||||||||| |**assets and liabilities at**||||||||||| |**the end of theperiod**||||||||||| |**A6 Cash funds last**
**year end**
**_Cash funds this year_**
**_end_**|**1,745**||**3,254**|**-**|**4,999**|**18,545**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||**1,034 **|**0**|**22,959**|**-**|**23,993**|**4,972**| |**Section B Statement of**
**assets and liabilities at**
**the end of theperiod**||||||| |**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**
**B2 Other monetary**
**assets**
**B3 Investment**
**assets**|**Details**|||**Unrestricte**
**d funds**
**to nearest £**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|**Endowme**
**nt funds**
**to nearest £**| ||Grow Lewisham bank
account|||**1,034**|**22,960**|**-**| |||||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||**_Total cash fund_**_s_
(agree balances with receipts
and payments account(s))
**Details**|||**1,034**|**22,960**|**-**| |||||OK|Agreement
Error|OK| |||||**Unrestricte**
**d funds**
**to nearest £**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|**Endowme**
**nt funds**
**to nearest £**| ||None.|||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||||**-**|**-**|**-**| |||||**-**|**-**|**-**| ||**Details**|||**Fund to**
**which asset**
**belongs**|**Cost**
**(optional)**|**Current**
**value**
**(optional)**| ||None.||||**-**|**-**| ||||||**-**|**-**| ||||||**-**|**-**| ||||||**-**|**-**| ||||||**-**|**-**| ||**Details**|||**Fund to**
**which asset**
**belongs**|**Cost**
**(optional)**|**Current**
**value**
**(optional)**| 4 |**B4 Assets retained**|Grow Lewisham bike||Restricted||**3,361**||**-**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |**for the charity’s own**|Herbal Plot infrastructure||Restricted||**459**||**-**| |**use**|||||||| ||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**| ||||**Fund to**||**Amount due**||**When due**| ||||**which liability**||**(optional)**||**(optional)**| ||**Details**||**relates**||||| |**B5 Liabilities**|None.||||**-**||| ||||||**-**||| ||||||**-**||| ||||||**-**||| ||||||**-**||| |Signed by one or two
trustees on behalf of all the
trustees|Signature||Print|Name|||Date of
approval| ||K Shipp||Kathryb Shipp||||4/4/2025| ||I Slater||Imogen Slater||||4/4/25| 5 **Charity Name Receipts and payments accounts** ## **No (if any)** Period start date Period end date 1/1/2024 **To** 31/12/2024 ## **CC16a** **For the period from** **Unrestricted funds to the nearest £** **Restricted Endowment funds funds Total funds** **to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £** ## **A1 Receipts** |**A1 Receipts**||||||||||||||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |Groundwork London||**5,000**|||||||||**-**||||**5,000**|| |Lewisham Local|||||||||||**-**||||**-**|| |Metropolitan Parks and Gardens Association|||||||||||**-**||||**-**|| |National Lottery||||||**19,640**|||||**-**||||**19,640**|| |Lewisham Homes|||||||||||**-**||||**-**|| |Transition Network||||||**4,992**|||||**-**||||**4,992**|| |LB Lewisham|||||||||||**-**||||**-**|| |Donations||||||**300**|||||||||**300**|| |The Merchant Taylo||**1,770**|||||||||||||**1,770**|| |Kathleen Faragher||**20**|||||||||||||**20**|| |Teggin J T
**_Sub total(Gross income_**||**20**
|||||||||**-**||||**20**|| |**_for AR)_**||**6,810**||||**24,932**|||||**-**||||**31,742**|| |~~**A2 Asset and investment**~~||||||||||||||||| |**sales, (see table).**||||||||||||||||| |None in eitheryear||**-**||||**-**|||||**-**||||**-**|| |||**-**||||**-**|||||**-**||||**-**|| |**_Sub total_**||**-**||||**-**|||||**-**||||**-**|| |||||||||||||||||| |**_Total receipts_**||**6,810**||||**24,932**||||**-**|||||**31,742**|| ## **A3 Payments** |Project management(Bridgehouse Gardens and Growi|Project management(Bridgehouse Gardens and Growi|ng|N
**600**||**-**||**600**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |Project management|||**1,722**||**-**||**1,722**| |Buildingmaterials|||**9**||**-**||**9**| |Coordinator role|||**300**||**-**||**300**| |Events|||**296**||**-**||**296**| |Workshopdelivery|**115**||**2,158**||||**2,273**| |Leadgrower|||**1,275**||||**1,275**| |Compost|**50**||**293**||||**343**| |Administrative|**142**||**1,144**||||**1,286**| |Seeds andplants|||**82**|**82**|||**82**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |Insurance|**359**||||||**359**| |Miscellaneous|||**-**||||**-**| |Field trip|**-**||**-**||||**-**| |Fixed assets - bike|||**-**||**-**||**-**| |Rent|||**-**||**-**||**-**| |Fixed assets|||**-**||**-**||**-**| |Tools|**35**||||**-**||**35**| |Repairs|||**-**||**-**||**-**| |Transport|||**-**||**-**||**-**| |Garden sessions|||**300**||**-**||**300**| |Materials|||||**-**||**401**| |Materials/refreshments|||**1,012**||**-**||**1,012**| |Refreshments|**42**||**5**||**-**||**47**| |Workshop|||**1,323**||**-**||**1,323**| |Workshopmaterials|**8**||||**-**||**8**| |WorkshopBHG|||**525**||**-**||**525**| |Workshops|||**552**||**-**||**552**| |**_Sub total_**|**751**|**-**|**11,997**|**-**|**-**|**-**|**12,748**| |Grow Lewisham bike
**-**
Herbal Plot infrastructure
**_Sub total_**
**-**
**_Total payments_**
**751**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**6,059**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**-**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**1,745**
**_Cash funds this year end_**
**7,804**
**0**
**A4 Asset and investment**
~~**purchases, (see table)**~~|||**-**
**-**
**-**
**11,997**
**12,935**
**-**
**3,254**

**16,189**||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**||| ||||||||**-**| ||||||||**-**| ||||||||**-**| ||||||||| ||||||||**12,748**| ||||||||| ||**6,059**||**12,935**||**-**||**18,994**| ||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**| ||**1,745**||**3,254**||**-**||**4,999**| ||**7,804**|**0**|**16,189**||**-**||**23,993**| **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the pe Categories Details Unrestricted Restricted to nearest £funds to nearest £funds B1 Cash funds** Grow Lewisham bank account **7,804 16,190 - - - -** _**Total cash funds**_ **7,804** ~~Agreement~~ **16,190** (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) OK Error **Unrestricted Restricted funds funds** ## **to nearest £** ## **to nearest £** |**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**|**Details**
None.
**Details**
None.
**Details**
Grow Lewisham bike
Herbal Plot infrastructure
**Details**
None.
|**Details**
None.
**Details**
None.
**Details**
Grow Lewisham bike
Herbal Plot infrastructure
**Details**
None.
|**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Restricted
Restricted
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
~~**liability relates**~~|**to nearest £**| |---|---|---|---|---| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**Cost(optional)**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**Cost(optional)**| |||||**3,361**| |||||**459**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**Amount due**
| |||||**-**
~~**(optional)**~~| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||| |Signed byone or two trustees
|Signature
||Print Name|| |~~on behalf of all the trustees~~||||| The account for the year 2024 shows a positive financial outcome and a continuo grown in activity. A compared with £20,887 in the previous year 2023 it shows an increase of 52%.This raise suggest m £19,640 and the transition network £4,992. Total expenditure decreased significantly from £34,460 to £12,748, reflecting lower project and mate were completed in the previous period. As a result, the Organization achieved a net surplus of £18,994, healthy result and improved reserve The year end cash balance increased from £4,999 to £23,993, showing improved liquidity and good tricted funds for specific project, and £7,804 represents unrestricted funds available for general use. Grow Lewisham Charity holds no liabilities at the end of the financial year, and all income and expen for accuracy. Overall, the figures indicate a healthy financial position with good prospects for continuing operations **Last year to the nearest £** **15,000 4,820 1,013 54 20,887** **20,887** **13,810 4,645 4,413 3,698 3,621 2,475 641 368** **359 303 83 44 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 34,460** **34,460 -13,573 - 18,545 4,972** **riod Endowment to nearest £funds - - - -** OK **Endowment funds** ## **to nearest £** **-** **Current value (optional)** **-** **Current value (optional) - - - - - - - - -** **When due** ~~**(optional)**~~ ~~Date of~~ approval 9/1/2025 As the table above shows Gross income of £31,742, ainly due to the income received from National Lottery erial costs during the year as several major projects es. financial managment of this, £16,189 relates to res- nditure have been checked against underlying record s.