Douglas Food Cupboard are a Local Community Group who are providing a local response to tackling food waste and food insecurity in the East End. 

We would like a grant to support our membership, which consists of local residents, to reduce their energy consumption. We would do this by providing 80 of our regular members with an air fryer and 10 LED energy saving lightbulbs each. While this would have economic benefits for our members, they would also be positively contributing to the aim of reducing energy use as both devices are more energy efficient than traditional ovens and lightbulbs. 

To accompany the air fryers we would also provide some ingredients and recipes to encourage our members to increase their confidence in using the device. 

The Climate Heroes Project is centred on community action against climate change. Providing learning spaces and opportunities to protect the environment with the development of a School allotment and Eco classroom at St. Fergus Primary School, Ardler, Dundee.

It will focus on key themes such as energy efficiency, reducing waste and improving biodiversity by increasing awareness and engaging communities and young people in climate change. Our application is based on dialogues with parents, teachers, and pupils of the school. Whilst the main thrust of the proposal aims to address climate change, it also seeks to advance child learning and development. It will also involve the Development Worker of Ardler Village Trust as a link to other local environmental projects and connects well with other community learning initiatives aimed at saving energy and costs amidst a cost of living crisis.

The Eco Classroom - An Outbuilding situated in the school ground that will create an immersive experience for learning and engaging with the environment, whilst promoting wellbeing. Having an outdoor practical space for education makes subjects more vivid and interesting for children to enhance their understanding and aid creativity. We intend to reuse natural resources by harvesting rainwater on the roof and using solar power. We propose to have a mini weather station. By encouraging pupils to use it, we can create a hands-on approach to learning about the ways or climate changes over time.

The School Allotment - A vegetable garden that will provide wellbeing benefits as well as educational benefits to the pupils about sustainability, producing our own food and how to reduce the carbon footprint. the school kitchen, Early Evening Cafe at Ardler Complex and Community Fridge can make use of the produce, making sure nothing goes to waste. Having a link with Ardler Village Trust and access to other projects within the community will enable us to share skills, tools, and experience from community volunteers.

We propose rewilding areas of the playground for nature to regenerate and grow, which will support dwindling populations of native pollinators including bees and butterflies. We intend to enhance the biodiversity in the area by creating more green space, boosting the presence of insects and wildlife. Getting pupils involved in making bird boxes and maintaining the minibeast hotel provides opportunities to learn about how we care for wildlife.

By inspiring school children within the community to be aware and take care of nature and wildlife on our doorstep, we can promote the importance of looking after our environment. The increased green spaces will benefit the environment and our health by improving air quality, connection to nature and mindfulness. They will also function as a sustainable urban drainage system, which will in turn prove to be beneficial with the current climate change challenges. We believe there is a need for community action against climate change now, more than ever. we need to educate people today for a better planet tomorrow. The aim of the Climate Heroes Project is to help achieve this.

Wellbeing Works is a local mental health charity based in the Wellgate Centre.  The Community Toolbox is their new project.  It is a library of things people in and around Dundee can borrow instead of buying for decorating, DIY, gardening, outdoor events, cleaning, baking, entertaining and more.  This means that people who can't afford to buy these tools and equipment are able to access them, and as a community we are reducing our carbon footprint by borrowing instead of buying items that ultimately end up in landfill sites. We are also building a culture where we share our skills and resources.  Check out the Community Toolbox at dundee.myturn.com 

1. Victoria Gardens is a 2600 square metre urban growing and social space on Blackness Road. Victoria Gardens has been awarded the Silver Gilt Certificate and the Its Your Neighbourhood Level 5 Certificate in 2022. Annually the garden supports over 500 visitors/participants ranging from school groups, community organisations, volunteers and students. The Victoria Gardens runs an annual summer club supporting young people over the six weeks over the holidays. Over and above this we run foreign language classes, yoga, arts & crafts groups, weekly garden club, a community fridge and social events. Victoria Gardens has a wild culinary area with common ‘weeds’ that can be used in cooking. The garden also has a compost area to produce its own nutrient rich soil. The garden also produces jams, chutney and teas using organic ingredients from the garden.

Our ambitions are to create a sustainable space with an aim for net zero. We will achieve this by installing solar panels and batteries to reduce our energy ouput of 2000kwh per annum, install a water reservoir system collecting rainwater to be used for agriculture, a large polytunnel to increase production of fruits and vegetables from warmer climates. Thus reducing carbon miles through international food transport. The garden would grow local fruit and vegetables over a longer growing period including the winter. Lastly we aim to grow our community fridge by employing a dedicated staff member, he/she will liase with supermarkets, food providers, the Dundee Food Insecurity network and others to ensure a constant supply. This food will then be distributed to local partner organisations, foodbank, support cafes and individuals. This will reduce food waste in the City.

YYI is applying to purchase a large polytunnel, solar panels, water butt system and staff costs for running the community fridge

Who We Are

We're Shaper/Caper - an independently led, multi-award-winning dance company and a registered charity based in Dundee, Scotland. We were set up in 2015 and we are all about communities!

Creating excellent art that connects with real people drives us. We want to ensure that as many people as possible, despite their socio-economic backgrounds, race, and/or gender, can access high-quality arts for free. We really believe that the arts are an intrinsic part of achieving a cohesive society that can spark civic action for social change.

We won the Inspirational Work in Education and Community Outreach Award from One Dance UK in November 2020. In 2022 we were finalists for the Charity/Group Initiative Award from Proud Scotland and the Digital Citizen Award from the Scottish Charity Awards.

Our Idea

We want to help save the planet before it's too late. We want to make sure that the world is a better place for our children and grandchildren. Above all, we want to encourage and embolden children and young people to fight for their right to a safe and healthy future! We're developing a new touring schools show for young people aged 8 to 12 years old. The World is My... explores the climate crisis through human impact and inspires positive action. Through the loveable characters of Nico and Grandad, The World is My... encourages children and young people to ask questions, tackle challenges and think independently. 

We are working with The James Hutton Institute: a leader in environmental research who make major contributions to the understanding of key global issues. Having a scientific input to this project is crucial. We want to make sure that the stories we tell are accurate and informative, and that our young audiences leave knowing exactly what they can do (and encourage the grownups in their lives to do) to make a difference. 

We have worked with over 45,000 children and young people over the last 7 years, and we deliver creative learning projects in 116 primary schools across Dundee, Perth & Kinross and Angus each year. Through this, we've developed a very successful model for interacting with children in a highly creative way that maximises inspiration and empowerment.

This vast experience continues to inform how we shape The World is My... for young audiences, with our core values - kindness, respect, collaboration and humour - at the heart.

The funds from this application will allow us to pilot the show in 10 Dundee Primary Schools. There is no cost for the school to access the production. 

Here's a short excerpt of the show as a work in progress: https://youtu.be/AYr_XnmSaQY

NO CHILD IN DUNDEE SHOULD GO HUNGRY

Dundee Bairns was formed as a community project in 2016 and was formally constituted as a charity in May 2017. We provide free breakfasts and lunches during the school holidays and free hot 2-course evening meals through our Tea Club during the winter months. Throughout the year we also deliver Christmas food hampers and vouchers, gifts for children, Easter eggs, cooking packs for families and schools and children's activity packs. Over the last 6 years we have provided over 450,000 meals to children in Dundee. In addition, through our Cosy Bairns project we have provided new clothes and footwear to just under 6000 children during the winters of 2020,2021 and 2022. All the aforementioned services rely on our staff and volunteers using their own cars. During the summer holidays we have had to rent vans due to the extremely high volume of meals we provide on certain days, but for almost all our services we currently rely on our volunteers and staff using their own vehicles. 

In 2017 when we started the Tea Club meals, we provided them to 5 Primary Schools, and now in the period October 2022 to March 2023, we will be providing over 1,000 hot meals per week, spread over 18 locations. 

The grant we are seeking from the Dundee Climate Fund would be used to purchase an electric van. This will reduce the requirement for our staff and volunteers to use their own vehicles and reduce the carbon footprint of the charity.  

An electric van is ideal for Dundee Bairns as our daily mileage will be no more than 100 miles per day, and therefore a single charge will suffice each day. It is likely that the annual mileage could be as high as 25,000 miles per year, and we believe that we would be best served by purchasing an electric van.  The quotes we have received to date equate to a cost of £24,000.

 If we are succesful with our application there are 3 main benefits. Firstly, having our own electric vehicle will allow the charity to provide our meals, children's clothing/footwear and other items for schools and children in a more cost effective manner. Secondly, it will reduce the demands made on our staff and volunteers to use their own vehicles and finally it will significantly reduce our carbon footprint. A truly win,win,win situation. 

Feeling Strong’s Sythensis Climate Project will be a year long project which raises awareness on climate change, eco-anxiety and how we can use nature as a tool to improve the mental health of young people in Dundee. Feeling Strong exists to make sure that every young person aged 8-26 in Dundee who has experienced a mental health or wellbeing challenge is supported to reach their full potential. We deliver projects, services and campaigns in the community to tackle stigma, build confidence, develop resources, create networks and most importantly support the positive recovery journey of our young people. This 12-month project has a total project budget of £16,572 spent over the year. We will engage young people by: 

1. Building knowledge of the positive effects being in nature can have on our mental health and how young people can develop creative responses to the climate crisis. We will do this through a series of art-making workshops leading to the development of works will be exhibited publicly in Dundee

2. Raise awareness around the negative impact climate change can have on our mental health by asking young people to create an interactive, playable game about the top 4 endangered animals in Scotland, as well as supporting our young people to produce and film a documentary about local climate activism and eco-anxiety in Dundee

3. We will also host a mini-COP style conference at the Feeling Strong Hub, focussing on climate issues that impact young people, highlighting the voices of young speakers locally and create pathways for young people to be further engaged in climate activism

4. Getting young people out in nature via an outdoor interactive art trail that raises awareness of the importance of conservation and how engaging with nature can have a positive impact on our wellbeing and ensuring young people's creative responses are highlighted across Dundee 

 Workshop Phase 

 In this phase, we will invite young people to attend creative and climate activism workshops based at our Hub. These workshops will be free and accessible to anyone aged 12-26 who is in Dundee. This would include life drawing, poetry, zine making, activism, documentary making and planning for sustainable futures. 

Game Jam

We will host a Game Jam with Dundee University Archives. The prompt will be the impact climate change has on mental health. We will ask the participants to create a game inspired by one of the most endangered species in Scotland. 

Exhibition

We will host an exhibition of participants' creative outputs from the workshops responding to climate change, endangered species and climate activism. This will be open to the public, raising awareness of climate change and young people’s voices.

Nature Trail 

We will install a Nature Trail in Dundee’s greenspace. There would be 12 QR code points on this trail where people can see art made during the project, and it would encourage young people to get out and use Dundee’s greenspaces. If they collect all the QR codes, they can come to Feeling Strong to receive a custom pin badge.

Conference

We will host a mini-COP conference at the Feeling Strong Hub, where young people will have localised discussions with decision-makers about mental health and climate change. The outcome of this event is to create a Manifesto that would feature testimonies of young people. 

End of Year Showcase and Release of Documentary

Alongside our Climate Conference, we will host a final exhibition showcasing all creative outputs made during the project, with a documentary featuring interviews with local figures discussing the impact climate change has on our young people's mental health.

Find out more about the amazing work we do at Feeling Strong: https://www.feelingstrong.co.uk/

Watch our VIDEO to find out more about our project!

We are a local community group who have recently taken over the redundant bowling green in Fairmuir Park, in order to establish a community garden.  Thanks to the support of the Dandelion Project (Unexpected Gardens) we have made an excellent start with the community garden.  However, we have much wider ambitions and want to build on the work already started .

Our aims for the future cover two of the criteria in the Climate Fund - Resilience and Community Engagement.

We want to make the garden more productive by growing larger amounts of fruit and vegetables which could donate to those in need and the local community larder.

We want to encourage more people to grow their own food in order to reduce the carbon footprint of the food we eat.

We wish to support our eco systems and bio diversity through types of plants we grow and the gardening methods we use. this would include recycling of green and brown waste through  composting , the use of natural fertilisers; supporting a natural pond and providing homes for birds and bugs.

We hope to increase the numbers of people in the wider community who use the garden by providing a wide range of workshops and community activities.

Dandelions began community engagement by providing free lunches once a week through the summer and we would like to continue this activity.

To achieve our aims we would like to apply for funding for materials to build more planters for the garden and polytunnel, cold frames, a tea/coffee shack and  a mud kitchen for the children. These are the materials we have asked for the immediate future.  We have put in three quotes which vary between a total of £10-12000.

Thank you for considering our bid.  

Significant energy efficiency measures in Dundee community space. Improving the efficiency of an 1888 building through insulation (both attic and underfloor), secondary glazing upgrading, installation of destratification fans (to better direct the heat towards the colder floor level from a 7m height) , solar PV panels and heat distribution measures to reduce carbon emissions by 34% and reduce heating output by 25-30%. The benefits of each have been detailed in an audit for the building. Our peak usage is also in the evening, when most of our classes take place. Battery power will allow us to generate and store during quieter daytime sessions to then allow for storage and use in the evening. Insulation will have a direct effect on the cold pool we have in the centre of our main practice space. Radiator heat goes straight up into our 7m vaulted space. With both insulation and 6 destratification fans, we could move an even heat to the lower levels as seen in the Dundee Rep. With soaring energy costs, we would be better able to direct resources towards maintaining our rich family and outreach programme providing a warm, welcoming and comfortable space.

With soaring energy costs, and reduced household income, and the organisation's core funds coming from community classes, we cannot put up class prices without increasing the pressure on our clients. With outreach classes 6 days a week, our free programmes also feel the effects of comfort and well-being in our space. Sharing our message about energy would also be a large part of our comms for the duration and after the project, as the most significant project we have taken on since our inception.

Wee Feed the World is a unique and far-reaching photographic initiative celebrating the small, family farmers, fisher-people and hunters who provide 70% of the world’s food in ecologically and socially just ways, despite the many challenges they face. Led by The University of Dundee Botanic Garden and the Gaia Foundation, the initiative seeks to support the global food sovereignty movement and to raise the voices of the urban and peri-urban farmers whose work both locally in Dundee and Globally demonstrates the vital importance of agroecology and food sovereignty for building a climate change resilient food system.

Over more than two years, 50 farming communities across six continents have worked with 40 award-winning photographers, including Rankin, Martin Parr, Nadav Kander and Gabriela Iturbide, to document their lives, celebrate their work and to highlight the challenges they currently face- from climate change to mega-mining. The funding this project seeks will add to that with urban and peri-urban farmers in and around Dundee to bring the world of food, acting locally while thinking globally to multiple venues across the city.

The photos will be exhibited in a diversity of food and drink connected places across Dundee from October 2023 crossing formal gallery boundaries to connect the growing spaces and their potting sheds to centres of faith, to community hubs and with bespoke formal gallery’s. Through the power of making the unseen seen, the stories of the men and women who truly feed the world will reach a much wider audience. The light will bring focus to those who are working hard behind the scenes to help feed Dundee in an environmentally sustainable way, with local examples of soil to plate that embed environmentally sustainable practices with reduced food miles and enhanced freshness.

We hope that shining a light on local growers and producers, with artisan food producers both near and far, will bring into the spotlight and help engage our community in conversations that will help inform a transition in the local food system. Food after all is the human story, linked to our sedentary transition and agrarian tradition. Its sharing will help the city to aspire for a city where fresh, local, sustainable produce is available and affordable for all and where good food is a celebrated part of our culture.