News
Kate Plummer
Apr 12, 2023
content.jwplatform.com
A woman was left devastated after vandals broke into her allotment, destroyed her crops and poured salt around.
Carly Burd, 43, who lives with multiple sclerosis and lupus and is on disability benefits, has been growing her own vegetables since last July and says she has helped to help feed over 1,600 people by giving them the vegetables during the cost of living crisis
On Saturday 8 April, Carly revealed what happened to her garden.
"I came down on Saturday morning and I just tasted and saw [the salt].
"Five kilograms plus of salt has been poured over my garden. It wasn't a kid grabbing it - it was an adult who knew what they were doing.
Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter
"What's heart-wrenching is that those onions were planted by children and they really put their effort in to put something back into the community.
"I felt like I'd been kicked in the face. I have no other explanation for it.
"Who would do that? It's just the most repulsive act I've ever known.
"[There's a huge] amount of people that it's going to affect, it's also affecting nature.
"All of the nature that's in the ground, all the worms, they're all dead. It has a massive impact."
Despite the setback, she still wants to give back to her community. She said: "Going forward, we carry on going. We're moving the other way, and trying to dig up as much as we can to get as much veg in the ground as we can.
"But affecting 300 people - that's a lot of veg in the ground I've just lost.
"On that land, we can't plant at all. Nothing will grow, so we're going to have an outdoor space with a tea and coffee area.
"We're going to invite the community over and have meal nights instead.
"All I can do at the moment is keep cracking on, I can't do anything else."
She also posted about her experience on TikTok:
@carlyburd43 #costoflivingcrisis #harlow #heartfm #dailymail #itvnews #bbcmorninglive #community #hometown
And she has a fundraiser to help raise money for her projects.
Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
Top 100
The Conversation (0)