Donna McArdle - Our Development Manager, 2018-2019

​Donna was our first Development Manager, from January 2018 to December 2019. She oversaw the official opening of Bridgend Farmhouse in March 2018 and her achievements including establishing our volunteer run café and regular events programme.

Donna comes from a background of people management and community building. She set up Scotland’s first community owned bakery in Dunbar, the Grassmarket Food Social Enterprise, The Old School Café and The Junk Food Project Edinburgh. She also set up a Climate Challenge Fund at Gracemount as well as being involved in numerous other community projects in Edinburgh and beyond in the last 10 years.
She is a passionate believer in communities enabling multi-generational interaction and loves seeing the power of people to engage and support each other, as well as creating nurturing environments for people to get involved in.