By MARG APPLEBEE

CENTRAL WEST LACHLAN LANDCARE

Another fabulous Homegrown Parkes community event was held on the weekend!

Thank you to our community for once again coming out and being part of the day in Cooke Park.

Our stallholder survey has been distributed and we would also love to hear feedback from those who attended the event.

Both of the surveys close on Sunday, October 20 at 5pm.

A massive thank you to everyone who has already responded to our request for feedback.

We try to factor in your suggestions moving forward, particularly around demonstrations, workshops, educational opportunities and stallholder suggestions.

It does sometimes become evident that many people don’t understand the ethos behind the ‘homegrown’ concept.

Whilst having 100 stalls in our park would provide a lot of diversity, it is really important that we maintain a standard that focusses on promoting local and regional businesses, not for profits etc. Bigger is not necessarily better.

A bigger event is not our goal.

These events would not be possible without many volunteers contributing on the day.

Thank you to our Landcare volunteers and Parkes Community Arts volunteers.

Thanks to the Parkes Shire Concert Band, Parkes Music and Dramatic Society and Parkes School of Dance and the Barnes family.

We love being able to showcase our local talent and have locals sharing with locals.

A big thanks to our amazing stallholders and food vendors, particularly those who continue to support every event.

We were also thrilled to have several new stallholders join us.

Central West Lachlan Landcare have committed to delivering Homegrown Parkes events for the next three years, twice a year.

This is for our community.

We don’t have a team of paid people running the event, apart from me, we are supported by volunteers from our Committee, volunteers from the Parkes Community Arts Committee and with in-kind support from Parkes Shire Council.

This past event also received support from the Northparkes Evolution Community Investment Program.

I hope to have the results of our surveys in the weeks ahead.

We will be holding our next event in March of 2025 and look forward to sharing those details with you shortly, so keep a check on our social media.

If you would like to complete our survey, it can be found via our website or social media.

For further information on this article, please go to www.centralwestlachlanlandcare.org, twitter, facebook or Instagram @cwllandcare or contact Marg Applebee on 0418 611 053.