BROWNIES and students from Chadwell St. Mary Primary School, Thurrock, joined forces at Chadwell St. Mary Community Centre to grow their own herbs and vegetables with the help of affordable housing contractor, Wates Living Space.
The community team transformed a piece of unused grassland in the centre’s garden to create the vegetable patch. Wates Living Space prepared the ground in advance by fitting five timber boxes and filling them with soil. 10 pupils from Chadwell St. Mary Primary School and five members of the local Brownie group then planted seeds and vegetable plants on Friday 15th May.
The patch will be harvested by the whole community, providing access to fresh produce and an opportunity to educate local children on sustainability. Wates Giving has also awarded a £500 grant support the community in maintaining the new vegetable patch and to ensure that it continues to flourish.
The event was organized as part of company’s annual community day, which sees 2,000 employees nationwide donate a day of their time to make a tangible difference to the communities in which they are working. This year, local projects across the UK received over 8,000 hours of Wates’ time.
Wates Living Space is currently working on site at a nearby to deliver the £68m Transforming Homes project for Thurrock Council.
Darren Burns, Operations Manager for Wates Living Space London and South, commented: “We are proud to have been involved in this project, following the successful recent renovation of Tilbury War Memorial. This Community Day gave us a further opportunity to work with the local community and, in particular, the children and teaching staff of Chadwell St. Mary school.
“The best moment of the day, without doubt, was the look of pride that the kids had when seeing the difference they had achieved by planting out the vegetable patch. It will be great to see the results when the children come back to tend the patch and pick some of the herbs and vegetables that we planted together.”
Kathryn Adedeji, Head of Commercial Services at Thurrock Council, commented: “I am delighted that our partnering contractor Wates shares our vision to make Thurrock a place of opportunity, where individuals and communities flourish. This is evident here today, where Wates employees have given their time to contribute to this project and give something back to the communities where they have worked in delivering Thurrock Council’s Transforming Homes programme.”
