This March we launched our first ever funding scheme with a pot of £15,000 that was shared between nine projects from Levenshulme residents who were chomping at the bit to do something new that coincided with our social aims – exploring new ideas for our high street or creating or growing their own retail enterprises. All our winners have now received their funding and have been beavering away getting their projects off the ground over the last six months and have agreed to share their progress with us…and you! So over the next nine weeks we will share updates from each of our winning projects on what they have been up to since March and how they have spent their funding so far.
First up we have Woolly Mammoth, who received £750 to cover the costs of buying equipment to cook their food, starter stock and branding to launch a social enterprise bringing together locally sourced UK wool and vegetarian food with a focus on promoting positive mental health and well being. Levenshulme resident Charlotte Dillon and business partner Rachel Hall gave us the following update:
It’s been go go go at Woolly Mammoth H.Q.! Firstly we are very lucky and grateful that the wonderful and talented Caroline Dowsett designed our Woolly Mammoth Logo. We love it so much and hope you all like it too.
The past six months we have been busy fund-raising for three very worthy charities including our local mental health Charity- Manchester Mind. We put our best foot forward and ran together in the Manchester Great 10K Run and as part of Mental Health Awareness Week we sold beautiful Blue Bow Brooches at Good Stock, all proceeds went to the amazing work that Manchester Mind carry out.
We have both signed up to the Levenshulme Good Neighbour scheme. To show our support of this brilliant Community Project we donated Home Baked Treats to be sold at a recent fund raising event hosted by Bud Garden Centre.
Finally to get your taste buds tingling we held a Supper Club at one of our favourite spots in Levy- Trove. It was so much fun to take over their kitchens Woolly Mammoth Style and serve up a three course Vegan Meal.
At present we are very much focussed on gearing up for our first market stall, which we are working towards launching in September. This involves lots of important recipe tweaking and taste testing! We’ve been out and about meeting some of our potential suppliers too and have secured a wool supplier from the hills of West Yorkshire. We are very excited to share with you all the woolly delights we shall be selling on our stall!
Looking forward, we are busy planning some special events and projects for the next 6 months. Including a Winter Knitting Workshop, where those new to knitting can learn a new skill from experienced knitters. You will go away knitting a woolly scarf that you can keep, or give as a gift. We will also be offering a donation service where your scarf will go to keep someone in need to keep them warm over winter.
In the New Year we are going to host a Healthy Resolutions Event where we will give you tips on how you can make small changes to your lifestyle to help you feel healthier and happier with opportunity to try some new foods and activities we think you will enjoy.
Watch this space!
