17/02/2025
A church in the heart of one of the country’s most deprived areas is bringing local people together and helping them with their mental health and wellbeing – thanks to the launch of a series of environmental projects.
St John and St Stephen’s Church, in East Marsh, Grimsby, has built planters providing vegetables for the church kitchen; as well as a potting shed and attractive planting. Nearby, the church plans to use a piece of waste ground to create a small orchard and a meadow.
East Marsh is one of the most deprived places in England, on every metric: income, health, crime and education. More than a third of children in the area live in poverty, according to the End Child Poverty coalition, and within one square mile in the area, there are six food banks.
“We want to show people what can be done in a small place,” said Priest-in-Charge, the Rev Kay Jones. “So, we started with the church environment being different.”
Inside the building, a legacy provided for LED lighting and thermal boards, helping the church lower its carbon emissions, as well as providing a warm space for the community. “It’s not freezing anymore,” said Kay. “We can have warm-space activities. People like being here.”
And people are connecting with it. An open day to launch the potting shed brought 17 adults and 27 children together. “It was hard to get rid of them at the end,” Kay joked. “It is changing things for small numbers of people,” she added.
“What I’m seeing is people wanting to be part of what we do,” she said. “People are trying different foods grown in the garden, learning how – and what – to recycle in the church’s recycling bins, and crucially, learning where food comes from, helping to reduce their food bills.”
To watch a video on the work of St John and St Stephen's see Church transforms deprived community thanks to flurry of nature grants.