Growing awareness for community space

THE regular food swap run by the Meredith Community Garden is set to return this weekend following the previous one’s cancellation in February.

The event will be the fourth instalment of the food swap, which was established late last year at the Meredith Sharing Shed.

The site’s director Chris Ardrey said the event has brought some attention to what they do.

“It’s an ongoing activity for the community that’s raised the awareness of the Sharing Shed which is a problem we’ve had for a while,” he said.

“It’s showing everyone what’s been happening with the activation of the place and the community garden and the land around it.”

The site was established as a business support space in early 2020 by Mr Ardrey and his partner Linda Wong as CLAW Enterprises.

Mr Ardrey said the event will also be a great way to hear more about the Shed’s upcoming tech hub, which is being developed with $20,000 from the State Government’s Living Regional Local fund.

“The plan with that is to take the next step by involving technology with our Nurturing Young Minds program with the local school as well as other programs we want to run,” he said.

“We’ve got some 3D printers, scanner and milling machine, a vinyl cutter and virtual reality equipment.

“This technology will also be open for people to learn about for their business or for prototyping an idea.

“There’s also plans for the hub to be the shopfront to help promote programs led between RMIT, Berrybank Wind Farm and GBG to help businesses starting in the area.”

The tech hub will be launched later in May.

The food swap will take place from 10am to 12pm on Saturday, 1 April at the Meredith Sharing Shed.