DORSET TEA will be providing funding to complete an outdoor garden kitchen for Boscombe's Grounded Community.

The company will also provide tea for the charity’s volunteers and ‘Feed the Community’ project.

Dorset Tea has announced Grounded Community, as its first ‘Communi-Tea’ partner, a new initiative that pledges a commitment to supporting local Dorset charities that need funding and awareness.

Founded in 2016, Grounded Community is a Bournemouth charity, that teaches people to grow their own food and feeds the community. 

The donation will enable Grounded Community to complete its outdoor kitchen space in The Secret Garden, behind St Clement’s Church in Boscombe.

The off-grid kitchen, part-funded by The Talbot Village Trust, has its own water irrigation and solar panel system providing a communal space for the charity’s 100 weekly volunteers, 20 families and community members to enjoy.

It is essential to supporting the garden’s workshops and general volunteer sessions, held every Monday and Friday from 9am to 1pm.

Dorset Tea will also be supplying tea where possible, for Grounded Community’s ‘Feed the Community’ project, working with local foodbanks across the BCP area to distribute much needed food and essentials to between 80 and 100 families in need.

Michael French, Grounded Community’s founder and projects co-ordinator, said: “This donation from Dorset Tea means the world to us, the outdoor kitchen is a vital space for us to work with our volunteers, to host the local community, and events too.

"To be able to have this up and running will allow us to do so much more. And it goes without saying, the tea will be so welcome for our Feed the Community project.

"We all know that people are struggling with rising food bills and the cost of living. Keeping up with these demands is our priority.

"Dorset Tea’s generosity means so much, not just to us, but to the whole Grounded Community and those that need our support the most in.”

Lauren Forecast, Dorset Tea brand manager, said: “We are delighted to provide the final funding to complete Grounded’s outdoor kitchen, a much-needed space for all the great work, education and support this garden provides to the local community.

"Tea always has a way of bringing people together and we are happy to be providing our cups of sunshine to the volunteers and local families fed through the ‘Feed our Community’ project.”

Dorset Tea is looking to support a series of community charities and initiatives, to nominate a local cause, email: chat@dorsetteauk.co.uk

For more information about the Grounded Community, visit: www.groundedcommunity.co.uk