500 Club - Supporting local charities

Published: 03/03/2021


February’s donation
The Befriending Scheme, Sudbury, Suffolk

 
This month our donation goes to the Befriending Scheme and more specifically the Friends Community Farm which is based in Assington near Sudbury. The scheme plans to purchase greenhouse staging (rather than the supermarket crates seen above) to enable them to grow more plants to sell at the local farmers market.  As you will see from the message below from Emma Lowery who manages the charity your donation is much appreciated and will make a real difference.
 
We are a small charity based in Suffolk. The charity has been delivering vital services across the county for the past 30 years. We offer a range of services to vulnerable adults and young people including; one to one befriending services, social groups, out and about groups, advice and guidance and more recently care farming services (involving people in real and meaningful tasks on a small farm). The work we do is vital in reducing isolation and improving wellbeing. We work predominantly with adults and young people who have learning disabilities and / or mental health issues, we support people to build lasting friendships and become part of the community. We have an amazing team of volunteers and paid staff that work tirelessly to deliver these services, as you can imagine the need for our services has hugely increased during this difficult time!
 
Our Care Farm has been offered a stall at a farmers market in Sudbury, we have begun growing a range of bedding plants and herbs to sell at the market. Your kind donation will enable us to purchase some staging for our polytunnel, the staging will double our growing space and make the working space feel much more professional for our members. We can't thank you enough for you kind donation, we will send some photos of the staging in action once it arrives. Thanks again for your generous donation it really will make a huge difference.