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From a simple Community Group to the Charity Incorporated Organisation (CIO)
The Hamm-Damm Foundation is a follow up organisation of a community group, which is a success story in Batley, West-Yorkshire. The community volunteers group "Manor Gardens Group", who managed Manor Gardens project for three years, transformed a grot spot (empty land 4,334 sq meters), which was a target for fly tippers, waste dumpers and drug addicts, into a community growing garden with fruit-trees garden, vegetables/herbs growing facilities, DIY-workshop (planed), woodworking facilities and social activities for the benefit of the local community.
The realisation of food-poverty and health and the recognition of the fact there are neglected pieces of council lands laying around as well as the voluntary potential available among the local communities, kicked off the mega project "Plant-it, Grow-it and Eat-it" supported by the Kirklees Council/Neighbourhood Housing (KNH) and the obtainable funding.
The local Council offered such a piece of land in Batley to a group of volunteers (Manor Gardens Group) and decided to encourage local people's enthusiasm. The project was supported by further external funding as well as local Councillors and the area MP to enable the volunteers to grow their own organic vegetables and herbs by skilling up residents around the site and other community members. This was a great opportunity to bring the land back into use and develop it as a valuable and attractive community asset for the neighbourhood.
The “Manor Gardens Group” was formed and adopted a constitution on 12th November 2013 which proudly expressed its mission statement as follows:
“We are here to improve the quality of life of our community members and to foster and facilitate them to stay healthy and fit, improve neighbourhood, be environment conscious, work together for peace and mutual understanding as a cohesive group, enjoy and develop inter-community relationship“.
The Manor Gardens site has been transformed step by step, through dedicated hard work and creative thinking from all involved, into a community growing garden. The unique plan was designed in partnership with the committee and the KNH-team by Groundwork Leeds. The Council / KNH-team provided the initial funding to get the site cleared and to make available the materials and equipment, together with the hard work of the volunteers an amazing community growing garden (not allotments) has emerged. The first Autumn harvest was relatively modest but enough to distribute among the volunteers and other community members and strengthen the resolve of volunteers to make it a success so that the next ones will be bountiful. And indeed, the following harvests turned out to be more than expected, although the full potential of the large site is not yet comprehended. The development of the site continues, new projects are planed and executed according to the availability of funding. The volunteers conceived the idea from the beginning that Manor Gardens project has to become gradually a comprehensive community social project rather than an allotment venture to fully utilise and justify their dedicated voluntary work. The idea, to lease the piece of land and transform the group into a foundation, supported by local councillors, the Council and the group of involved and motivated volunteers, gave birth to a charity < The Hamm-Damm Foundation > with the aim to improve the < Quality of Life > of the people at local community level as well as wider reaching circles.The Hamm-Damm Foundation, set up in September 2016 with a Charity Incorporated Organisation's (CIO) constitution, is now registered as charity with the registration-number 1172686. Since then it has been transformed, from a simple community voluntary group "Manor Gardens Group" (registered with Council registration office GAP Number 2013176), into an active CIO foundation to take on the challenges at the local community level and beyond.
Feroze Syed - Chairman
Sharing the First Harvest
School Visit
We grow and donate produce to the local food bank!
We encourage early education on sustainable and healthy living.