A wellbeing cafe has become the first to benefit from a donation of fruit and vegetables grown in a specially built polytunnel in Telford Town Park.
Cucumbers, peppers, spring onions, beetroot, onions, green beans and chillies were handed to staff at Wellbeing Community Café in Madeley.
The vegetables were the first crop grown by voluntary group Friends of Telford Town Park (FOTTP) in the tunnels built at the Chelsea Gardens in the award winning park.
The staff and volunteers at the cafe put them to good use, making meals for local customers, and were delighted with the donation.
Lucie Roberjot, Wellbeing Café manager, said: “We really appreciate the donations from the Friends, the food provided has had a very positive impact on our local community.
“It supports our ability to provide healthy, nutritious food to those who cannot always afford regular meals, in addition to our after-school club providing subsidised food for local families.”
The café is a non for profit safe space for people to access information, advice and guidance and it is run by Telford and Wrekin CVS. The food they use is locally sourced, saved from going to waste.
Next month the café will move from its current base in Madeley to a new site in Brookside, where it will be called the Sunflower Café. It will continue to provide the same services to the local community, including a weekly soup kitchen and monthly subsidised meals.
FOTTP hopes to continue to provide fruit and vegetable donations to Sunflower Café and other nursing homes and good causes across Telford & Wrekin as their crops become established in the coming years.
Adrian Smith, chairman of FOTTP, said he was surprised and delighted to be able to hand over the first donation just months after the polytunnels were finished.
“We only finished constructing the polytunnels earlier this year and only filled them with soil in June,” he said.
“We thought this year would only be a trial crop and we would not be able to offer produce to organisations until next year, but we are so pleased we have managed to do so already!
“The Wellbeing Café is a fantastic resource for local people and we are proud to be able to make a small contribution to their wonderful work.
“The idea is to grow vegetables each year, whatever is in season, and offer them to local care homes and the like. It won’t be regular, as it will depend on how well the crops grow, but it’s certainly been a great start to the scheme and we hope to be able to make a difference to many more in the years to come.”