There’s a spring in our step this March at Newquay Orchard! As our community of volunteers, visitors and staff at Newquay Orchard relish the lighter evenings we’ve all got a sense of hope and a lightness of step that everyone is enjoying. The daffodils and crocus’ have also cheered up the greenspace in March after a long winter.
At the beginning of March we celebrated St Piran’s Day! It’s a day close to our hearts here in Cornwall and we were pleased to fly the flag for St Piran. Kernow Bys Vyken!
With the increase in living costs recently, some volunteers are experiencing financial hardship. The Newquay Orchard team provide volunteers with a free lunch and bag of vegetables to take home to their families. Another way they have helped in March is through an energy saving tips session with the Citizens Advice Bureau. The group learned several ways they can save money on their household energy bills whilst also being better for the environment.
Newquay Orchard volunteers have also enjoyed teamwork outdoors helping a willow artist to construct willow arches at either end of the Woodland Walk. Working with natural materials is a great way to connect with nature whilst creating an exciting environment at Newquay Orchard for people to explore. Volunteers also took part in a foraging workshop in March learning about and tasting the many edible plants growing wild at Newquay Orchard.
Growing Future students have been busy learning sign language this month. The group of young adults learnt how to say hello and have a short conversation! They were excited to teach their families at home. The Growing Futures group valued the idea that they can communicate with people who use sign language and plan to practice it amongst themselves. As well as sign language, students have also been taught about the importance of healthy eating, creating recipes from produce grown at the Orchard including tabouleh and fruit smoothies.
This month the Newquay Orchard horticulture team brought together 30 residents of the Highfield Road social housing development in Camelford for a tree planting day. This was the final day of a co-design project to redesign the shared courtyard space working the residents and Cornwall Housing. On the day the residents helped to plant 6 Cornish apple tree varieties and a plum tree. The Orchard team will be hosting 3 more workshops over the year to teach residents care for the trees and how to harvest the delicious fruits.
Newquay Orchard are delighted to be nominated for more awards this month as we continue to impact local people. The volunteers have been nominated for the Newquay Town Council Community Awards and the team as a whole have been nominated for the Queens Award for Voluntary Service. It’s an honour for everyone involved to be acknowledged for the work being undertaken in our urban greenspace and the positive effect it is having on our local community.
The CLLD workshops have continued to support people on the start up scheme at Newquay Orchard which helps growing businesses. In March Newquay Orchard’s CEO Luke Berkeley gave a group advice about funding bids, COO Jenny Hindson imparted her wisdom on sustainability within businesses and Marketing and Memberships Officer Jaimie Poyner gave a workshop on marketing and PR for small businesses.
It’s been a busy month but April is looking even more jam packed! With The Clothes Horse, The Cornwall Bicycle Project and a whole host of creatives and wellbeing practitioners hosting events and workshops at Newquay Orchard and inside our community building Kowel Gwenen.
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