Vandals pour salt over mum’s allotment she used to feed 1,600 people | UK News
A kind-hearted mother who used her plot to feed more than 1,600 people during a cost-of-living crisis has been heartbroken after ‘evil’ vandals destroyed her land by sprinkling it with salt.
Carly Bird, 43, has been feeding the population of Harlow, Essex, free of charge, hand-grown vegetables since last July.
The green-eyed mother of three first started growing seasonal vegetables in her own vegetable garden, then expanded to a neighboring property.
However, the 49-year-old was devastated when she visited the site on Saturday morning (April 8) only to find that what she claims was “five kilos of salt” had been spilled onto her land.
Carly, who has multiple sclerosis and lupus, says the salt destroyed enough potatoes and onions to feed more than 300 people.
After seeing the damage, she shared a tearful video of her destroyed lot on TikTok, where it has over 33,000 likes, comments and shares.
Carly said, “I came in on a Saturday morning and just tried it and saw [the salt].
“More than five kilograms of salt were poured into my garden. He was grabbed not by a child, but by an adult who knew what he was doing.
“What is heartbreaking is that these bulbs were planted by children and they really put in the effort to give something back to society.
“I felt like I had been kicked in the face. I have no other explanation for this.
‘Who would do that? It’s just the most disgusting thing I’ve ever done.
‘[There’s a huge] the number of people that it will affect, it also affects nature.
“All nature that is in the earth, all worms, all are dead. It has a huge impact.”
The devastation did not frighten the gardener, she is determined to continue to feed her community and plans to report the incident to the police.
Instead, Carly plans to turn the damaged land into an open space where residents can enjoy tea, coffee, and food together.
Meanwhile, Carly plans to grow food in another part of the lot so she can still deliver food parcels to the hungry people of Harlow.
Carly said, “Going forward, we keep going. We are moving in the other direction and trying to dig as much as possible to get as many vegetables in the ground as possible.
“But affecting 300 people is a lot of land that I just lost.
“We can’t plant on this land at all. Nothing will grow, so we will have an open area with a tea and coffee area.
“We’re going to invite the community and host dinners instead.
“All I can do at the moment is keep working, I can’t do anything else.”
Created to help Carly get back on her feet, GoFundMe has since surpassed its fundraising goals and raised over £18,000.
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