As a community-owned farm, people are the heart of our community. We have volunteers coming to the farm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and either once or twice a month on Saturdays. Our main community volunteering day is Wednesday, where we work to pack our VegBoxes and to engage volunteers in all stages of crop production. We all sit down together for a shared lunch which the farm provides, breaking bread and building relationships that form the foundation of our community. For more info on how to volunteer please click here, we are always looking for new people to get involved!
We also welcome volunteers with support needs who make valuable weekly contributions to the functioning of the farm, in 2019 roughly a fifth of our regular volunteers had autism, learning disabilities or other support needs. In 2019 we have run volunteering sessions with partner organisations Orchard Hill College and South Thames College.
Looking to the wider community, we’ve been delighted to have successfully hosted some big public events this year, including a Spring Open Day in May, Harvest Festival in September, and Tree Planting Event in November, where more than 50 members of the public helped us plant 420 new trees!
Sutton Community Farm is a Community Benefit Society (CBS) – a form of co-op, and 2019 was the first full year of our Open Share Offer, whereby anyone can become a member shareholder of the farm, collectively owning it and ensuring power in numbers for our community project! We now have more than 400 members, to find out more please click here.