Our first MEET UP for South Gippsland and Bass Coast area features social enterprise pioneers Gil & Meredith Freeman from GROW LIGHTLY.

Gil and Meredith will be sharing the journey of creating a social and community enterprise when no-one really knew what that was. Ten years on, they’ve learned a lot and are happy to share their story with us.

GROW LIGHTLY is many things: a green grocer, vegie bag scheme, network and community and learners of all things sustainable. In short Grow Lightly is all about celebrating Gippsland.

We’d love you to join us on WEDNESDAY 28TH OCTOBER FROM 4.30PM TO 5.30PM VIA ZOOM (until we can meet in person one day soon).

G-SEC local hosts Alyson Skinner and Sarah Dowell will be on hand to provide more information about Gippsland Social Enterprise Collective and to welcome everyone to this exciting grass roots story of GOOD business, with PURPOSE.

More about GROW LIGHTLY: https://growlightly.com.au/about/

Grow Lightly has a base in the Green Grocer in the main street of Korumburra. This is a beautifully appointed space where you can stop for a chat, browse and buy. Here you can pick up all your fruit and vegies plus a wide variety of other products including bread, eggs, milk, cheese, yoghurt, preserves, frozen berries, value added produce and so much more. All the goods are locally made and grown, with the fruit and vegies coming from less than sixty kms away. Each week the growers bring in a wide variety of produce from their backyards or orchards and gardens.

For over twenty years, Grow Lightly has been operating a fruit and vegie bag scheme, which supplies weekly bags of fresh, organic fruit and vegetables. Ordering now is weekly and on-line. A network of volunteers packs and distributes bags to Gippsland households. With wonderful southern Gippsland soils and great fertility why shouldn’t the residents of this special area have a way of accessing the best that the area produces! Not to mention the envrinomental benefits of low food miles. The aim is to give people access to high-quality and clean local food, and to encourage small-scale organic farming and horticulture in the local area.

Grow Lightly has a network of growers who are encouraged and supported to grow food organically to supply to Gippsland locals. Growers for Grow Lightly abide by a charter. The charter requires that foods produced be of high nutritional value, without synthetic fertilisers, herbicides or pesticides – foods which enhance the health of those who grow and eat them; that biological activity in and fertility of our soil is maintained and increased, and that renewable resources are used, giving priority to those produced locally. Grow Lightly tries to extend the range of locally organically grown foods available in south Gippsland, particularly those grown from open-pollinated seed, and aims to find out more and share knowledge about food plant varieties which grow well in Southern Gippsland, including native Australian food plants.

As well as the shop at 25 Commercial Street Korumburra, and the vegie bags, Grow Lightly provides a weekly supply of bulk foods, delivering to enterprises (restaurants, shops and groups of families buying collectively) across southern Gippsland. These groups order on line and have bulk purchases delivered locally.

Grow Lightly operates as a not-for-profit company with a board and a small number of paid staff and relies heavily on an army of volunteers. All profits are put back into the business so that it can continue to serve the many communities of southern Gippsland with fresh, clean local food; support local growers of fresh produce; and local providers of value-added produce.