Cooking Up a Storm

We are a small care farm in North Devon providing educational and therapeutic animal assisted interventions for children and young people with special educational needs, disabilities and mental health needs.

Our small team of staff and volunteers have worked through the pandemic crisis, providing support services and respite to families in our local community with children who have struggled with the phenomenal effect of the restrictions imposed. 

During the earlier part of 2021 we have provided fully funded holiday club provision for nearly 100 children, with many more expected to join us during the summer holidays. The children attending the farm free of charge have benefited from life enriching experiences, engaging in all aspects of caring for our animals and environment. They also had the opportunity to learn about farming, food origins and get hands on with cooking their nutritious and fresh meals on site. This part of the project is crucial as those children eligible for funding are from low-income families, those most at need. We found that we were limited in what we could achieve with our limited resources and whilst we got creative and overcame most of our problems, our solutions are only temporary. We currently have a fully accessible toilet, a small kitchenette area and our barn room where our children congregate on wet days when sitting outside isn’t possible. Next to this area is a big space that is currently used as storage area. We have plans to merged this storage area into the barn room, creating one large open plan space, with a fully fitted kitchen at one end and seating and work space at the other. This would allow us to increase our group numbers (from 8 children to up to 12) and would also mean we would be able to fully immerse the children in the experience of cooking their own meals. This outcome wouldn’t just be for the holidays either, we could use this facility all year round for that very purpose, enriching our young people’s lives and teaching them important life skills. We have the space and some of the manpower for this work. We also have a grant from The Arnold Clark Community Fund to go towards some of the costs. We now need to match that grant funding to enable us to complete the work in time for the school summer holidays.