Key Points
- Carly Burd turned her garden into an allotment to grow produce for those struggling to afford food.
- This week, she posted a video on TikTok revealing vandals had covered her garden with salt.
- An online fundraiser has raised almost $230,000 to support the project.
An online fundraiser has raised over £123,000 ($229,000) to help struggling families access food after a community garden project was vandalised.
Throughout the cost of living crisis, Carly Burd has helped provide meals for over 1600 people through her A Meal on Me With Love initiative.
Ms Burd turned her garden into an allotment and invited members of her community to help grow produce, donate funds, and supply essential grocery items for people in need.
This week, she discovered her garden had been attacked by vandals and covered in salt.
"I'm absolutely heartbroken," she said in a video posted to TikTok.
"Someone has jumped over in the night and put salt all over the land ... that means everything I've planted won't grow and I can't replant on it.
"All the hours, and hours, and hours of work that we've put in is now dead, and they've done it everywhere.
"How could you do that?"
She vowed the attack would not deter her.
"I hope it makes you happy, I really do ... but do you know what, you won't stop me, because I'll just pick it all up and I'll carry on," she said.
"Ok, I can't plant in this section but I'll carry on, you won't stop me whatsoever."
The video now has over three million views and has been shared across social media, with users also posting the link to the GoFundMe for A Meal on Me With Love.
In the fundraiser description, Ms Burd, from Essex, near London, said she has multiple sclerosis and lupus and is on a disability pension. She was motivated to help others in similar situations.
"I’m on disability so I have to keep the cost down. I can’t sit back & watch people struggle; not being able to feed their kids or go without food so they can have the heating on," she wrote.
"Last year I went without heating, having MS with no heating is horrific. Why are we left to live like this?"
In a follow-up video, posted on Wednesday, Ms Burd thanked donors for their generosity, and said while she was "still heartbroken" over the damage, she was determined to continue the project.
"The amount of work - I can't even begin to tell you - that's gone into that allotment is unbelievable," she said.
"It's not just from me, it's from volunteers loving what I do and wanting to join in, which is what I wanted to do; to bring the community closer."
