Environmental charity Greener Kirkcaldy’s hope for a tree in every Fife garden

The project started last year, with thousands signing up to take part ,and Lauren Brook, chief executive, said there are plans to continue the campaign in 2024.

Lauren explained: “We got about 2000 people signed up last year and we're continuing this campaign. This year we will be giving out 350 fruit trees to people in Fife and we will be giving them advice, information about fruit trees and how to plant, and what fruit trees work in different locations. Even though we have only got a small number of trees to actually give out, we'll be advising a lot more people where they can get fruit trees and what would grow back in their gardens.”

Lauren said that the charity experienced “another really busy year” in 2023 with bumper numbers of people interacting with the charity. It worked with more than 15,000 people over the course of the year, with 150 volunteers giving 6,153 hours of their time.

The year ended with Greener Kirkcaldy picking up a community action award at a national ceremony in November. It collected the Climate Community Award at Holyrood’s Climate Action Awards.

Lauren said: “We were absolutely thrilled and honoured with it because we didn't nominate ourselves, we were nominated by Fife Voluntary Action. It's really a reflection of Greener Kirkcaldy over the last 10-12 years, of all the previous and current staff and volunteers and our community. It really reflects all the hard work the community does to cut back carbon emissions and be more climate friendly.”

Lauren was keen to thank all those who make the charity’s work possible, whilst also issuing a rallying cry for more people to get involved with the charity.

She added: “There are lots of ways people can get involved, by becoming a member or a volunteer at one of our events. Thank you as well to everyone who makes that work possible. We couldn't do this without the support of our community and our partners and our members and volunteers as well.”