Hello from London!

On 1st December, 10 of us signed up to take part in corporate volunteering at Stepney City Farm.

The farm was founded on a site heavily bombed in World War II and is now a working farm in an urban area, producing organic vegetables and fruits and quality meat and eggs with high animal welfare. It is located in Tower Hamlets, the most densely built up borough in London.

The farm is free and open 6 days a week, providing local residents and their children valuable opportunities to see farm animals closely and learn about where our meat and eggs come from. The farm holds nature learning classes to school children, lending vegetable allotment spaces to local residents and local community groups.

They also lend studio spaces to artists who hold regular art and craft workshops. They have a weekly farmer’s market and a cafe on site which serves the fresh produce grown at the farm vegetable garden.

The day was a very sunny, beautiful wintery day with a bit of occasional snow. We started our day with the tour of the farm and learning about the history and what it is now.

Alan, the food grower of the farm, coordinated the day for us.

We worked on the compost system, gathering animal manure, hay, twigs and leaves from the farm site, starting with the 1st compartment, moving gradually to the 6th final stage. We learned that if it was successfully managed, the pile would become slightly warm and steamy in the middle of the process.

The end product is beautiful black soil packed with nutrients. The soil is then used for growing vegetables and fruit trees.

After having a delicious lunch catered by the farm cafe, the afternoon began with playing with piglets who were born 2 weeks ago. They are energetic and curious!

We then moved on to build a dead hedge around the pond. We cut branches into stakes, and make an outer frame of the hedge. We filled inside with smaller branches, twigs and foliage. These will provide a guard for the lake as well as a safe habitat and food source for wildlife, such as insects and small birds.

We ended the day with feeding the animals before saying goodbye.

Thank you Alan and Stepney City Farm for hosting our volunteering day. It was such an enjoyable day, working outdoors together with colleagues who usually sit in different floors or departments, learning about composts and a dead hedge, cleaning the animal beds and feeding. 

As the farm was open to the public on that day, we saw babies and children marvelling at the animals. We are so grateful for being part of maintaining this beautiful working farm that is so much loved by local communities.

Charities, Wellbeing and Social Working Group