Each year we donate 2% of our revenues through coffee sales to a small number of community and charitable projects, both close to home, and at the origins we source our coffee from.
This year we made our first donation to Growing Well, a mental health charity that champions ‘recovery through activity’ in their Cumbrian market gardens, and we are hopeful that this is just the start of a long relationship working together.
Growing Well’s original site at Low Sizergh is just down the road from Red Bank HQ. We are big advocates of organic regenerative agriculture, and supporting mental health, so the opportunity to partner with Growing Well and raise awareness for the wonderful work that they do felt like the perfect fit.
Last Friday we spent the day at Growing Well working in the fields and polytunnels, learning more about their work, and more importantly, getting our hands dirty! We picked (and maybe ate a few) french beans and sugar snap peas for the crop share, took down some rows of fencing that had done their job for the current season, and weeded a load of leeks, all under the elusive Cumbrian sunshine.
We left feeling rejuvenated and like we had, for a short while at least, escaped the regular rhythm of life and its accompanying pressures. It’s easy to see how such work, supported by the trained mental health practitioners on site, allows the Growing Well team to succeed in their objectives to help beneficiaries build emotional resilience, develop life skills, and support healthier, more active living.
This year marks 20 years of Growing Well, but they have expanded from one to three sites in the past two years, and are now operating sites at Tebay Services (Northbound) and in Egremont as well as at Low Sizergh.
You can learn more about Growing Well here, and if you live nearby and like the idea of locally grown organic veg, you may want to consider signing up to their Crop Share scheme.
A huge thank you to Rebecca, Sinead and Mark for hosting us all, and for taking the time to share with us all the great work that they do.