‘The Woke are connecting.’ Said Doyle. Happy stance red head leaning. Outside Billie’s, waiting on coleslaw.

‘Woke.’ We agreed, last Thursday, having just encountered each other for the first time in this incarnation. Doyle’s eyes are the blue twinkle of the dream. Upon waking from fourteen hours deep healing restorative sleep, the air, energies, atmosphere, noises were altered. Inside my head, outside my head. All around my flat. I had a dream I chose a crystal. The one with the how to build a row of polytunnels with raised beds.

That Thursday, when I opened the door, Lizzie didn’t snarl, snap, bite, kick, damage, yell, threaten. Or titter. Energy transformation or vibrational shift? Lunar?

Doyle’s eyes were the crystal I had chosen. Doyle handed me his coffee, his smoke. ‘Wait there.’ He said. Lisa lay down with a sigh. We’ll be here a-while harrumph so loud the biscuit lady in the Bottle Shop heard. She came over and put Doyle’s correct number in my phone.

‘We recognise each other, not because we remember Wicklow in the eighties when all industry died – but because we both know we need to grow food and medicine immediately.’ Said Doyle, leaning, authentic, ageless, androgynous. From Waterford. 

We got to chatting. May it delight Our Mother Earth to abundantly finance Doyle to build our shared dream. Purpose perhaps.

‘Up The Wood Hill, passed the new Alva House is a turning circle blocked off my a bench.’ I said. ‘The neighbours seem happy to do all they can to support us.’

‘We recognise each other and our purpose.’ Said Doyle. No bullshit. A soul connection made on the quiet-again streets.

‘Do you know Joe, the Food Project, Stirling?’ I asked.

‘No.’ Doyle replied. Doyle and Joe need to meet, I thought.

‘We build raised beds in polytunnels in the land around and about that turning circle. To feed everyone from the wood hill to the Wallace Ornament.’ Said Doyle. 

‘You must meet Joe.’ I replied. #LoveInAction  May you both be abundant in Climate Change Funding.

  Joe dreams of bringing dignity to free food provision. He has been sourcing and distributing food from supermarket waste, to those, like me, in need.’

‘We are running out of food supplies and sources.’ Said Joe. ‘The demand for food rises each and every day.’ We met, to talk, finally, last week. ‘To feed my queue we need farmers growing vegetables for free, for next year. A dedicated system. From Land to Stirling’s Food Project.’

‘We must do what we can, now. People cannot die on the streets, of starvation, In Stirling in 2022.’

Doyle and Joe could go talk with Tom. Tom has money. He could donate. I could go talk to Tom – he would definitely donate. Transition Stirling’s Hub of makars’ outreach project. Creative hubs in nature alongside food production. A compost toilet to research waste management. Placements and guidance from criminal justice systems. Tom could talk to James, regularly, about safety. James’s life purpose is to extract nutrients from compost – safely. He throws out rump steak instead of letting me cook it – in case I die or get sick. James saw my shame when I needed fed, and to feed others at Christmas. He didn’t judge. He thinks with his ancient brain – his gut. ‘Will this juicy rump steak feed us or kill us?’ James asks food. James McGhie takes responsibility for the food from the supermarkets’ waste, to me, in the queue for a fresh rump steak and a week’s fruit n veg.

Doyle, Joe, James McGhie and me could do it. Build a farm as Stirling’s response to Climate Change.

#LoveInAction  The Food Project, Stirling.

It started with need. Down the back lanes of Stirling, we queued for free food. In 2022, the line for free food is longer. There isn’t enough for everyone. Joe Swindells is the Manager of the Food Project. With a name like that he’s a failed banker, right? Right. 

He looks Scottish, speaks Mancunian. Joe has huge watery blue eyes. He could cry at any moment. This work brings him a joy he needed. Joe has known homelessness. From his perspective his purpose is quality of life in delivery of free and affordable food. Joe is in service, in Stirling. He created a Love in Action project, before hearing that phrase.

‘What is Love in Action?’ Love in Action is the Pantry and the Market at Wellgreen. Joe and the others took the shame away. We gather loaves of bread, veg, fruit – for free. The market at Wellgreen is all free because the supermarkets couldn’t sell it. It is waste produce. Surplus. Only fit for the bin. Or the poor. We take only what we need, with deepest gratitude. 

Finding joy in free flowers. Watching folk find joy, dinner, banter. Small kindnesses rippling out. Co-ordinated collections of surplus Waitrose organic chicken breasts, transferred to a kitchen, prepared, returned for sale at fifty pence a tub. How many failed bankers might salve their souls here?

Bring Joe the money and the food to feed the poor of this area. Bring all the Climate Change Funding to his attention, for his use. To pay the woke, the good, the dedicated connected others. Like James McGhie and Kayleigh, Oxana and Emma. Fund them to feed us. Now. Immediately. Do not delay. The team is ready, they work well together. The resources are there. The team know the resources. 

Obstacles to change are limiting growth of this project. Enablers of global consciousness change in Scotland must protect the Food Project, Stirling. Funders from everywhere must donate what they can, then find ways to donate more.