A number of ways to volunteer with Grow it, Cook it, Eat it

A number of ways to volunteer with Grow it, Cook it, Eat it

Posted for Havant Borough Council - Grow it, Cook it, Eat it

Posted by Volunteer First

Register your interest

You will be redirected to the Volunteer First website to express your interest.

We have been working on an amazing project called ‘Grow it, Cook it, Eat it’. After some frustrating ‘stop/start’ situations due to weather and other issues, we are now well underway.  Can you help us?

We need groups and/or individuals to get involved to help us. There is a lot of different work that is needed.  Now the allotment is planted up, the work we need is more by way of maintenance, hopefully harvesting and generally weeding and keeping an eye on the plot.  Would you or your group be able to help us? We don’t mind whether you can just give us an hour or so intermittently or would like to make a bigger commitment, whatever you can offer we will be very happy with.

The plot started as waist high weeds but now we have all the area prepared and have planted; runner beans, peas, courgettes, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, cabbage, cauliflower, marrows and butternut squash.  We have more to go in in the next few weeks.

We have great ideas, and would be keen to hear yours to, but we need people who can get involved. You might already be a keen gardener and would enjoy taking a weedy patch of earth to harvesting a crop. It might be that you want to learn new skills, or even to get something on your CV so you can follow a career in this type of work. Maybe you just want the experience of working as part of a team, or getting to know others. However you can help us, we are really keen to hear from you.

Most of the manual work is done, for now but we also have a lot of ‘background’ work that is required. We want people who are a whizz with social media, can build raised beds etc for us, are good at contacting companies and getting things reduced or better still free. Perhaps you would like to learn project management skills, we can help you with that and this is a great project to manage. There is such a range of skills that are needed. Can you help? If so, please register your interest today and let’s start, not only the conversation, but the journey to success!

Along with all the above we also have ongoing maintenance tasks.  Our sheds need painting, the weeds need removing or strimming, stinging nettles need cutting back, and the brambles need to be kept under control.  Please get in touch if you can help.  I am looking forward to going on this journey to success, with you.

N.B. Please only register if you are genuinely interested and can commit to this role. Please ask any questions in the notes section when registering your interest. We will email in the first instance, so please ensure you double check your junk folder.

What skills do I need?

A variety, but as an example:-

• Gardening Skills, particularly getting rid of weeds and getting the area ready to plant next year.
• Construction Skills, we have a donated green house to put up, raised beds to create and other construction projects.
• Social media skills. Getting our project out there to attract volunteers and to help us find the people we can help.
• Contacting companies to request discounts, or better still, freebies. Trawling social media for people who are getting rid of things that might be of use.
• Project managing the over arching principles to make sure everything is happening when it should.

There are probably more, but this would be a great start!