Team Volunteer Days

Ingeus certainly got their daily dose of fresh air when they visited the farm! We set them to cut back the ever growing ivy, raking up leaves and tidying up the gardens.

Ingeus provides services for people, businesses and communities to create and improve employment, skills, health and wellbeing and we strive to deliver social impact through maximising the impact of our core services, as well as delivering social value within each contract we operate. https://ingeus.co.uk/about/social-impact

The group from Gleeds got stuck in straight away! They were tasked with making our entrance way more accessible for prams and wheelchairs. They lowered the curb and created a ramp outside for easy access for all!

The Gleeds Foundation is doing excellent work improving the lives of young people. You can find out about more of their work here: https://www.gleeds.com/en/about-us/our-impact-on-the-world/gleeds-foundation/

We love when Hillarys come to the farm! They have been supporting us for a number of years. This time they were tasked with all things wood! Sorting through our waste area to salvage wood, dismantaling the old wooden play area and building our new waste area. They're always a great team and the gentle competition between the team helped them get so much work done! 

Hillarys Blinds are committed to sustainability for the future: https://www.hillarys.co.uk/sustainability/

Enva have been so generous to the farm over the past few months, even before their visit. They have provided us with loads of skips and are helping us introduce better recycling bins on site.

During their TVD they were a great team to work with who were motivated to get all their tasks completed. 

You can find more about all the work Enva is doing for sustainability here:

https://enva.com/sustainability

British Gas joined us in October and after we asked them several times if they could get us a new boiler we set them to work! 

They helped us move manure, aerating the paddocks, repairing wheelbarrows, weeding and painting. There was nothing they couldn't do!

British Gas give all their employees 2 paid volunteering days a year and we were honoured they chose to come to the farm: https://www.britishgas.co.uk/about-us/making-a-difference/in-local-communities.html

Capital One have been coming to the farm for TVDs for years so it's always nice to see them! 

We set them to work doing the most important job of all, picking our apples to be made into cider! They managed to pick crates and crates worth which the Sneinton Cider Company will be making into delicious cider. 

Capital One is committed to helping it's community and you can find more information here: https://www.capitalone.co.uk/aboutus/csr-community

LexisNexis have been big supporters of the farm over the years and this most recent group was a joy to work with! There was quite a few of them so we gave them a variety of tasks to get on with. Moving manure, tidying up the manure storage area and a spot of spring cleaning were the morning jobs. And cuddling the goats was on the agenda for the afternoon. A tough job but they really embraced it!

You can find out more about the ESG work LexisNexis do here: https://risk.lexisnexis.com/about-us/corporate-responsibility

Experian are regular visitors to the farm so we were delighted to welcome them back! They arrived raring to go. They undertook a variety of strenuous tasks around the farm. Our Maintenance manager had this to say "To think that these volunteers usually work on computers they really pulled out all the stops and worked incredibly hard on this very hot day" 

We are honoured to be chosen as part of Experian's worldwide mission to make a difference. You can find more about the work they are doing here: https://www.experian.com/corporate/experian-corporate-social-responsibility/

Nottingham Trent University have sent several TVDs groups to the farm this year. They completed a variety of tasks including moving manure (it never ends!), weeding, distributing sand in the paddocks and most importantly, cuddling baby goats! They are always an amazing team and great fun to work with.

NTU is a pioneering university for sustainability and have loads of different ways they are doing their bit, find out more here: https://www.ntu.ac.uk/about-us/strategy/sustainability/our-community

Quite possibly the best dressed team volunteer day we have ever had (sorry everyone else!). We had 2 teams from L&W visit the farm. Unfortunately for them we had a big pile of manure that needed moving! This didn't faze them however and they got to work straight away. Don't worry we made sure the second team also had to do their fair share of manure moving too!  

Lee & Wrangler have made several sustainability pledges by 2025 and give their employees hundreds of volunteering hours to help support communities like ours. You can find out more here: https://www.lee.com/about/sustainability.html

Earlier in the year we were chosen as one of Starbucks and Hubbub's "100 new Nature Hubs". This meant we received funding to transform our woodland walk. We were delighted to welcome some of the Starbucks team to show them all the work we had done and even happier when they wanted to help! They got the ground ready for the all important pathway grids, making it fully accessible for everyone; including prams and wheelchairs. 

The Starbucks foundation helps charities all over the world and you can find out more: https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/the-starbucks-foundation/

We would have been more than happy for a makeover when GHD visited but instead they swapped their straighteners for screwdrivers. We might have only have 2 people from the GHD team available on the day but with the amount of work they got done you would have thought there was a whole salon! 

GHD's Engagement, Communication and Communities team was established over 20 years ago and does amazing work all over the world, find out more here:

https://www.ghd.com/en-gb/expertise/energy-and-resources/engagement-communication-and-communities

We have recently had 2 visits from the team at Xylem and our maintenance team really put them both to work! The first team came to us all the way back in March and they were tasked with flattening some of the ground in the playpark ready for the Easter holidays. They also helped fixed the duck pond, a regular task for our TVDs!

The second group joined us in July and really helped us out with loads of gardening, trimming bushes and weeding. They really went above and beyond to help with other duties such as painting, clearing of wood and installing anti-slip mats. 

Xylem provide innovative water solutions around the world so we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to ask for their advice about the farm!

More information about Xylem and the work they do can be found here: https://www.xylem.com/en-uk/