About me

Darryn De La Soul, Founder and CEO of Margate Mushrooms – a project by Margate Independent Foodbank where Darryn is the Logistics Coordinator.

How it begun

Margate Mushrooms was born when Margate resident, Darryn started growing mushrooms in her spare room during lockdown. Local greengrocers began buying up everything she grew and Darryn soon realised the potential the mushrooms could have. Besides farming mushrooms in vast shipping containers, Darryn also co-founded Margate Independent Foodbank CIC during the pandemic. Forming part of the foodbank, the Margate Mushrooms project works with foodbank members, plus those who may be housebound due to illness and those escaping domestic abuse, to start their own micro-businesses. Farmed mushrooms are distributed to home workers who process the mushrooms through freezing, drying, pickling, fermenting or making by jerky, crisps and coffee tinctures, and are then be paid for the product. 

But making a great idea like this into a reality needed financial, and community, backing. This is where the expertise of Funding for All can help…

The mentoring

“The social media training was absolutely fundamental to the success of my crowdfunding campaign. The ‘three pillars’ idea [suggested by Darryn’s mentor] made it so much easier to make a comprehensive plan that was easy for me to follow and kept it fresh for my audience. 

This training from [Mentor], combined with the support from [another Funding for All Fundraising Mentor] made it possible for me to successfully make it through such an arduous and difficult process that running a crowdfunding campaign is.

Without this support I would have buckled and given up. In the end I raised £42,000!”

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