Group brighten up community

MANY hands make light work – no matter how big or small they are.

Grimsby gardening group Big Hands Little Hands are sprucing up Hainton Avenue with their green-fingered efforts – be it growing fresh vegetables or styling a stunning hanging basket.

Based at the community- minded Yes Chef Café in the Avenue, it is the brainchild of co-owner Penny Thompson, 43, who hopes it will help promote healthy eating and happy customers outside of her kitchen.

She said: "We have always grown our own herbs and lettuces for the kitchen, then we started growing strawberries and tomatoes and helping customers to do the same, and it went from there.

"Now it is starting to change the environmental aesthetics of the area, people are buying and hanging out our baskets, which make people happy. I like to think of it as an everlasting legacy. It doesn't need to be much, it just has to have a positive impact on the community."

There are currently 72 members of the group, who in ten months have transformed the small corridor-shaped garden of the café into a colourful haven.

Chairman Rob Thompson said: "It is about getting people interested in healthy eating and living and to encourage the community to get together and enjoy gardening.

"The café garden is looking really nice."

They are supported by Hainton Neighbourhood Forum, Grimsby's Howard Grove Gardening Club, conservationist, Ernie Brown and Green Futures in Bradley.

Councillor Carl Wilson (Heneage, Lab), is thrilled with the progress of the club.

He said: "This is all about people helping themselves to make the community better. It raises other people's aspirations in the area and it isn't about having acres and acres of garden, it can be the smallest space but as long as it is used well it makes a huge difference."

Member Ken Smith, 40, of Hainton Avenue, said: "We have great camaraderie and banter and when I look at what we have achieved I feel proud. This area doesn't have much but we are putting back into it."

Big Hands Little Hands is holding a Connect Four Championship throughout the six-week holiday.

If you want to become a member, pop into Yes Chef Café. Membership costs £1 a year and includes discounts off workshops and day trips.