About FCGN
Connecting and supporting community green spaces in Fife
Our aim:
To provide support and increase engagement within Fife’s existing community green spaces.
What this will look like:
A support network for existing community green spaces including a resource bank (both online and physical), support staff for programming, biannual conferences and professional advice.
Fife Community Garden Network
Fife Community Garden Network is supported by the Social Entrepreneurs Fund, delivered by FirstPort. FCGN received a StartIt award in 2023. These awards support individuals with a business idea that addresses a social, environmental and/or community issue.
The aim of FCGN is to provide support and increase engagement within Fife’s existing community green spaces. These are valuable, pre-existing spaces within the heart of their local communities that, with help from FCGN, could have a much broader and deeper reach in their communities.
Through practical support, targeted staff members and physical resources, FCGN wants to help Fife’s community gardens to better increase access to the natural world, nutritious food and to improve the wellbeing of all participants within our community.
Eliza Twaddle, Founder & Managing Director
Eliza has designed and supported community gardens and healthy eating initiatives for the past fifteen years in Fife, wider Scotland and the United States of America.
She founded the Murray Hill Row-by-Row project in 2009, her first venture into community-supported agriculture. By 2010, she returned to Scotland, where she volunteered at Alderman Road Community Garden (part of the Coach House Trust) throughout 2010. In 2011 she was employed by Whole Foods Market at their flagship Giffnock store as the shop’s Health Eating Coordinator. She developed a series of healthy eating workshops for families in 2015 for the Glasgow-based social enterprise Merry-Go-Round Glasgow that are still in use today. Also in 2015, she partnered with School Food Matters, a London-based charity, to develop and deliver programming at their Project Manager for Scotland for the following three years. This included partnership work with the Royal Highland Educational Trust, as well as four partner schools and one wonderful and welcoming farmer.
In 2016, she was employed by Broomhill Gardens Community Group as their Children’s Gardener, a post which she held for three years. She later became chair of the group, assuring a large amount of funding for site redevelopment and future financial security. In 2017, she took up the post of Community Gardener at The Ecology Centre. There, she helped run an inclusive and vibrant community volunteering day, and debuted her first pre-school outdoor family group, MiniGrowers. In 2021, she took up the position of Greenspace Development Manager at Rosyth Community Projects Limited. She developed and delivered a varied programme of community engagement activities, regularly bringing in over 100 people per week to the site to learn, enjoy and garden. She left this position in spring of 2023 to found Fife Community Garden Network.
Board of Trustees
Grant Stewart
Grant is a passionate advocate for sustainable living and environmental education. He had extensive experience working with children in local schools, introducing them to gardening through the installation of raised beds and other garden infrastructure. He has pioneered various forms of educational programming, including the cultivation and harvesting of vegetables, fostering a deeper understanding of food sources. He has implemented innovative initiatives in community gardening settings. Grant served as Volunteer Coordinator for EATS Rosyth. He runs the The Sanctuary Garden just outside Dunfermline where he grows fruit and veg and raises hens.
Helen Stroud
Helen works in the Customer Service team at Fife College’s Levenmouth campus, and she also assesses grant applications for Foundation Scotland on a freelance basis. She was involved in the committee of the Broomhill Gardens Community Group for many years, including as treasurer, helping to run a weekly kids’ gardening club in Burntisland. She brings her knowledge and experience of good governance of small non-for-profit organisations and is keen to increase the support available for small groups running green spaces in Fife. She lives in Burntisland with her husband and three children and enjoys running, getting in the sea and gin cocktails, not necessarily in that order.
Krista Drazniece
Krista holds a degree in Community Education from the University of Dundee and works for Fife Council as a Community Education Worker. She is passionate about the outdoors and sharing the benefits that healthy eating and healthy living can bring to the individual. In her free time, she enjoys walking her rescue dog and spending time with her husband.
Ethan Daish
Ethan himself can be a bit camera-shy, but he’s not shy of being behind the camera, having obtained a degree in from Bournemouth University in multimedia journalism. He continues to utilise these skills to assist community organisations to tell their stories more effectively. Ethan works for Fife Council and spends his free time playing and following the football, walking his dog and spending time with his wife.