Projects helping community members have access to nutritious food was the order of the day during the Church Commissioners for England’s volunteering day. 26 volunteers from the Church Commissioners for England, whose property portfolio includes the Hyde Park Estate to the west of Edgware Road, rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in across two sites, a local primary school and a local community garden.
A team of 11 eager volunteers spent the morning at St Peter’s CE Primary School, located just off Harrow Road, which has approximately 200 pupils from a wide range of backgrounds. Many of the pupils live in housing with limited access to garden space.
The volunteer team at St Peter’s CE Primary School.
Drawing on knowledge from the Church Commissioners for England’s farmland portfolio, volunteers led a classroom session on vegetables and flowers with five to eight-year old pupils, helping to educate them about where food comes from. Pupils learnt how some vegetables grow upwards above the soil, and some downwards beneath the soil, as well as learning what plants and vegetables need to grow, such as sunlight and water.
Volunteers helped educate pupils about vegetable growing during a fun art session.
The pupils then joined the volunteers outside in the garden to help dig the soil to plant brightly coloured Primula flowers. They also helped sow carrot, beetroot and pea seeds. Pupils designed wooden markers with their names on them, to place next to the seeds they planted, to watch them grow over the coming weeks.
Volunteers also helped assemble protective netting to help keep birds from the newly planted seeds, as well as weeding the site, pruning branches and clearing the pond.
Volunteers supporting pupils at St Peter’s CE Primary School.
Pupils planting vegetable seeds and flowers.
Volunteers purchased and constructed protective netting.
A second team of 15 volunteers brought the same energy and enthusiasm to work alongside local environmental charity, Hammersmith Community Gardens Association (HCGA). HCGA runs a range of greening and food growing schemes across a number of sites in Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster.
Volunteers spent the morning hard at work at Queens Park Gardens, which regularly engages local residents through its weekly community gardening sessions as well as family growing workshops during school holidays.
The Church Commissioners for England volunteers at Queens Park Gardens.
The team of green-fingered volunteers spent the morning lining two planters, sifting compost before planting herbs in one followed by strawberries, kale and peas in the other. Volunteers also tended the garden’s orchard, introduced in 2018, as well as painting and hanging signs for the fruit trees. The team also turned the compost bin and weeded sections of the community space.
Volunteers tending to the herb garden.
Signs for the fruit trees in the community orchard.
The volunteer team at Queens Park Gardens.
The activities were arranged as part of our Community Programme which supports our business members to engage in the community. From environmental projects to skill-sharing to coffee mornings, there is something to suit every community engagement plan that creates memorable moments and sustainable impact. If you are a Marble Arch BID member and would like to find out more about the wide range of community engagement and employee volunteering opportunities, please contact Phil at community@marble-arch.london.