As part of our Community Health Champions programme, Freshwinds runs several food growing sites throughout Birmingham to encourage the community to get active and engaged with the great outdoors. Spring will soon be upon us, and Freshwinds’ volunteers and staff will be taking advantage of the fair weather to plant more seeds to grow nutritious, organic, and delicious fruit and vegetables.

The project had tremendous success in its pilot last year, with a wide variety of individuals rolling up their sleeves and getting stuck in at our food growing sites. Of course, the most exciting part was reaping the rewards, and there was a huge array of vegetables to be had once harvest time came about; from knobbly carrots to tremendous turnips, our volunteers grew the lot!

This year we are building up several new locations throughout Birmingham into fantastic food growing sites, and working to get them ready for planting over the summer period.

Success Story: Queen Elizabeth Hospital Site

One of our most improved sites, which we run together with The Conservation Volunteers, is located in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital grounds. The site started out as nothing but a rough patch of land, full of grass, weeds and brambles, however with great efforts from fantastic and dedicated volunteers it has become something in which people of any age and ability are able to grow nutritious, wholesome and fantastic food to take home and share with their friends and family.

Of course, there is still a long way to go for the site; our four huge raised beds comprise only around a third of the overall site build, and the sand is only temporary until the site is paved; but it’s a great start!

Our Sites Across Birmingham

The QE site is just one of our sites; Freshwinds has food growing projects throughout Birmingham, and we accept any individuals who want to come on down and get stuck in! We currently have sites based in;

Selly Oak
Bordesley Green
Balsall Heath
Hall Green
Sparkbrook
Ladywood
Small Heath
Handsworth
Ward End

If you are interested in getting involved with your local food growing project at Freshwinds, or if you have a site that you think we could engage with, please get in touch with David Epps from the Community Health Champions team using the details below:
David.Epps@Freshwinds.org.uk
0121 439 7519