Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website JLR allotment declared good to grow!
may 16, 2019 - Jaguar Land Rover

JLR allotment declared good to grow!

  • Jaguar Land Rover officially opens its first community allotment with help from Gro-Organic
  • The plot, close to the Solihull manufacturing plant, will be transformed into a flourishing fruit and vegetable allotment by Jaguar Land Rover employees
  • All produce will be donated to people living in #food poverty across Birmingham and Solihull
  • In its first full harvest, the allotment will provide 400 meals
  • Allotment will also support a new work experience programme for 16-24 years olds to gain a qualification in horticulture and landscaping

WEDNESDAY 15TH MAY, SOLIHULL: Green fingered Jaguar Land Rover employees can swap the production line for the vegetable patch following the official opening of the company’s first community allotment.

The allotment, created on waste ground, is the latest large-scale community project supported by Jaguar Land Rover’s Solihull manufacturing plant. The scheme aims to provide fresh produce to people in and around Solihull and Birmingham who live in #food poverty. It builds on the plant’s existing relationship with Gro Organic an organisation dedicated to creating #green spaces while providing social and economic opportunities for some of the most disadvantaged people in the region.

I was saddened to read that 100,000 children in Birmingham live in #food poverty*, so when the opportunity came to expand our partnership with Gro-Organic and create a community allotment, I knew the whole team would want to support it. Employee volunteering is really important to Jaguar Land Rover and this project provides an ideal opportunity to support the education, health and wellbeing of our workforce while providing enough fresh, seasonal produce for 400 meals in its first year.

DAVE OWENOPERATIONS DIRECTOR AT JAGUAR LAND ROVER SOLIHULL

A team of volunteers overhauled the plot last winter, clearing years of overgrowth, erecting a polytunnel, and building raised beds to prepare for its first full year of growing. With the expert advice from Gro-Organic and funding from Jaguar Land Rover’s Social Impact Fund, the allotment will grow everything from runner beans to raspberries, making up seasonal #food boxes for families across the region. Advice and recipes will accompany the #food boxes depending on the harvest and a hand built earth oven on the plot will also allow beneficiaries to enjoy their crop as soon as it is picked.

The produce will be distributed via various #food bank initiatives including the Real Junk #food Project, Free #food Friday and the newly launched Incredible Edible Network in Solihull.

Jaguar Land Rover has worked tirelessly over the last four years to support Gro-Organic and the communities we serve, including a vehicle and trailer donation in 2017. Since then we’ve been oversubscribed with families needing our support and finding plots of land to obtain the yields we need to support these communities can be difficult. Jaguar Land Rover assisted to negotiate terms for a significant plot of land that will produce high #food yields and provide opportunities for local vulnerable people to develop skills in #food growing while also donating their time to help us design, plan, develop and maintain a space for a sustainable community #food project with the potential to reach all corners of the borough.