Member Article

Ouseburn Farm celebrates project success with community meal

Volunteers from Ouseburn Farm showcased their cooking skills on Friday afternoon by preparing a community meal for up to 150 guests.

The ‘Growing Together Eating Together’ meal was organised to celebrate the successful completion of a healthy eating project which used food and growing as a catalyst to bring groups of local people together to support their development and life skills.

Earlier this year, the farm secured almost £9,500 funding towards its ‘Growing Together’ project courtesy of the Ringtons Fund and the Aviva Community Fund. The funding enabled the farm to support over 75 adults, many with learning difficulties and disabilities or facing social exclusion, to participate in the six-week courses.

The project taught participants where food comes from and its nutritional value incorporating sowing, growing, budgeting, meal planning and preparation and cooking. At the same time, it has encouraged and supported them to continue their development through volunteering with the opportunity to develop new skills, create friendships and instil confidence.

The farm celebrated the trainees’ hard work and learning by preparing delicious healthy meals for people to try. It was also an opportunity for local people to find out more about the project and to engage in some of the many activities available at the farm.

Sally Adams, Business Manager at Ouseburn Farm, said: “We are very grateful to Ringtons Fund and the Aviva Community Fund for contributing funding towards our Growing Together project. The project has been a huge success and has enabled us to engage with local residents and encouraged them to grow, plan, cook and eat their own food, much of which has been freshly grown at the farm. The initiative has also helped to improve their budgeting and team-working skills and knowledge of healthy, sustainable eating.

“To celebrate the success of the project and to thank our funders, we thought it would be a great idea to organise a community meal for everyone to enjoy. All those who attended had a great time.”

Ringtons Fund donated £4,438 of funding via the Tyne and Wear Community Foundation and the project was awarded an additional £4,920 from the Aviva Community Fund.

Last November, the farm was shortlisted amongst 800 local organisations and community-based projects in the Aviva Community Fund, which funds much-needed projects to support those most disadvantaged in the community.

Over 5.5 million votes were placed nationwide and Ouseburn Farm was one of only a few community projects in the North East to benefit. This additional funding enabled Growing Together to reach twice as many beneficiaries.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Up North Communications .