A COMMUNITY garden project which played a key role in the coronavirus crisis is now returning to its roots to fight food insecurity.

Belville Community Gardens stepped up to deliver 3,000 self-isolation parcels during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Their relief effort followed years of banging the drum for the need to make food more sustainable and affordable.

At the start of the pandemic they were the first to mobilise in the days leading up to lockdown, distributing parcels as supermarket shelves emptied.

The Tele chronicled their work throughout the pandemic and a TV crew from BBC Newsnight even visited at the height if it to interview members of the task force.

Now after bringing their emergency response to an end, manager Laura Reilly has reflected on the last four months and vowed to push on.

She wants to tackle food waste by stocking up community fridges using donations from stores and offering produce from their garden.

Laura spoke of her pride at mobilising 200 volunteers to hand out 3,000 self isolation boxes, and driving a determined fundraising effort to provide hundreds of internet-enabled laptops for home schooling vulnerable children.

She said: "I am so proud of what we all managed to achieve as a community.

"When we were out there in the community speaking to people, we saw first hand the real need out there.

"We also had some really heart warming feedback from our laptops programme from head teachers and that meant such a lot."

The community garden uses the site of the former high rise flats to grow produce and it offers a wide range of garden, cooking and other projects.

They co-ordinate food programmes like the community fridge network in centres and schools, with help from the Foodshare initiative.

Laura is now exploring ways of continuing to build on the links they created with the community and other people during the Covid-19 crisis.

She said: "We want to continue our work to provide food security for people, as we now know how easily it can turn into a crisis."