It’s hard to believe that we’re almost into September but it’s true, the summer has all but passed. You might be forgiven for saying that, weather-wise, it’s not been the most memorable of seasons but there’s been plenty of activity on the volunteering and fundraising front.
First held back in 1999, Truck Festival is held at each summer Hill Farm, near Didcot, and has grown to become a firm favourite on the UK’s festival scene. The Festival is held on the family farm of Elaine Morgan, the sister-in-law of Kate Lund, our Office Manager at Growing Well at Tebay Services.
For over 20 years the festival has committed to fundraising for a wide range of charities through offering not for profit food stalls on the festival site in the Feel Good Food Tent.
The Smoothie Stand is run by Elaine herself, and is a real family affair with Kate, her daughters, brothers, nieces, cousins (and about 30 other volunteers) all working there throughout the Festival.
Held on the last weekend in July it proved to be a record breaking year blessed with hot sunny weather, with freshly blended smoothies being sold non-stop over the four days of the Festival. The proceeds from the sales of smoothies were split between a few charities, and they have kindly chosen to donate £4,000 to Growing Well as one of those good causes.
Closer to home, Growing Well’s Rebecca Batstone made a presentation at the IN Group networking group in Kendal, telling local businesses about our work in supporting the mental health of local communities, and received a donation of £100 from them.
After a recent open day, Grange Fell Allotment Society made a very generous donation of £250 to Growing Well, and we also received a donation of £750 from the Duchy of Lancaster Benevolent Fund to support minibus running costs to support beneficiaries from North Lancashire.
Sainsburys Good Food for All Community Grants was launched in 2023 to help support some of the most vulnerable people and communities throughout the UK. Growing Well have received a £2,600 ‘Stardust’ grant, awarded to help projects that provide longer term support help tackle the issues and causes of food poverty, including mental health.
Friday’s are volunteer days and in the last month we have welcomed volunteers from Growing Singing, H&H Group, Red Bank Coffee and Chris Holmes DL, the High Sheriff of Cumbria, and his wife Sue.
We’d also like to thank the apprentice team from West Cumbria Rivers Trust who donated a day of ‘balsam bashing’ to help rid us of our Himalayan Balsam problem! Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera) is an invasive species and can cause a serious weed problem as it grows and spreads rapidly, smothering other vegetation.
Corporate Support in West Cumbria
At the Growing Well West Cumbria site in Egremont, Altrad donated a full day with a team of around 20 people at the end of the July and have since organised another 4 volunteering days in August with between 5 and 15 people each day. They have supplied paint and started painting our packing shed and have also helped build beds for crops.
Apogee donated a day of support with a team of 4 who supported with site maintenance including hedge trimming and bed building.
A team of 10 volunteers from Mission CX also donated an afternoon and Sellafield’s Programme and Project Partners (PPP) organised three additional afternoons helping with a wide range of tasks across the West Cumbria site.
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If you would like to find out more about how your organisation can get involved with Growing Well and supporting mental health recovery in Cumbria’s local communities, then we’d love to hear from you:
Growing Well – Kendal
Sinead McCann (Manager) sinead@growingwell.co.uk
Rebecca Batstone (Partnerships Manager – South Lakes, Furness & North Lancs) rebecca@growingwell.co.uk
Growing Well – West Cumbria
Hannah Wright (Manager, West Cumbria) hannah@growingwell.co.uk
Growing Well – Tebay
Lorri Millar (Manager, Tebay) lorri@growingwell.co.uk