Guest Blog: Vauxhall City Farm
We love Vauxhall City Farm so much that our A Good Week teammate Katherine is a Trustee. If that wasn’t enough, they are getting together with us to host our closing party, A Good Picnic on Sunday June 24. Here’s more, in their own words…
In 1975 a group of local residents got together to do something Good for their community. Two years later London’s smallest city farm opened its gates and this year we celebrate our 35th year of keeping the lamb in Lambeth.
Our day starts at 8:00 when staff and volunteers arrive to give the animals their breakfast. At 10:30 we open, welcoming visitors, school and community groups, gardeners and animal lovers. Throughout the day you might spot the horses providing riding lessons for children with autism, 8 year olds making butter, allotment holders popping in to water their strawberries or young people learning animal care skills.
Last year we provided 915 subsidised riding lessons to young people from the community, 107 weeks of work experience for 57 young people, education activities to over 3000 school children and free family learning to over 2000 children and their parents while 40 young people volunteered as Young Farmers.
To us Good means providing everyone who visits us with a warm welcome, the chance to reconnect with the natural environment and opportunities to get their hands dirty. We’re only tiny but if we can help a toddler meet his first chicken, a school child grow her first lettuce, a young person learn skills for the future and everyone find a relaxing escape from city life then we feel pretty Good about it!
How can you help us do this?
If you are a business you could adopt an area of our work – wheelbarrows, staff uniforms, incubators and animal feed may not be glamorous but they are essential to keep the farm running! It costs £35,000 a month to run the farm and all our services so every little helps.
If you’re an individual you could adopt an animal, volunteer to help with one of our services, raise money for us or make a donation through our website.
We’re thrilled to be hosting the closing event for A Good Week and looking forward to learning what everyone else does, how they do it and what inspires them. We look forward to seeing you all at Vauxhall City Farm on June 24th for some summer fun!
We’re so looking forward to A Good Picnic… make sure you register at our Eventbrite page. We’re just off to do a sun-dance, just in case.