Greenwood Community Update: January 2025
2024 was a fruitful year for our plant donation scheme, having been fortunate to work not just with some of our frequent collaborators, but with many new organisations as well. We were pleased to announce that we exceeded our annual target of 24 Greenwood community project donations last year, reaching 26 donations in total. From ecological initiatives, to local schools, hospices and more, it was a privilege to be able to contribute to some truly worthwhile projects.
2025 will hopefully be yet another busy year for our community scheme, with an ambitious target of 30 donations having been set. We’re looking forward to working with new and existing partners, to help regenerate and enhance local green spaces.
Below is an update on the final projects of 2024.
Sussex Green Living
In September, Greenwood partnered with local non-profit environmental organisation Sussex Green Living, to provide plants to a series of projects across the county. The group builds ‘Pollinator Education Stations’, which are installed in schools to help teach children about the importance of biodiversity and our environment. Greenwood has supplied bulbs and pollinator friendly plants to five different projects so far, with many more donations planned for projects in the future. Carrie Cort, the Founder and CEO of Sussex Green Living, said “It’s been fantastic working with Greenwood plants, they’ve been a great help, and I look forward to working more with them in the spring”.
Chestnut Tree House Hospice
In early November, Greenwood donated plants to frequent collaborators Chestnut Tree House Hospice, near Arundel in West Sussex. The hospice specialises in care for children, providing much needed care and comfort for them and their families, both on-site and in their homes. The hospice is twinned with the larger St Barnabas Hospice, located nearby, with which Greenwood also frequently collaborate. The donation is Greenwood’s third of the year, and will be used to freshen up some of the green spaces on the hospice grounds, which provide many benefits for the patients to enjoy.
Chichester SEND Foundation
Recently, Greenwood was delighted to welcome students from the SEND foundation at Chichester College to our Fresh Acres nursery site. As well as collecting a donation of plants, the group were taken for a tour, learning about how we grow and dispatch our plants. The foundation, who are longstanding Greenwood Community partners, specialise in providing training and valuable life skills to children with special educational needs. The tour was so popular amongst the students, that it was split into two different days, to accommodate every student who wanted to attend. The plants donated will be used in the foundation’s very own garden, situated on the college grounds, and maintained by the SEND students themselves.
Kingsham Primary School
In early November, we donated a mixture of grasses, shrubs, and perennials to Kingsham Primary School, located in Chichester. The school, which is new to the Greenwood Community scheme, accommodates over 300 pupils in the local area, and provides a wealth of learning opportunities through local initiatives on its doorstep. The school has many green spaces for the pupils to enjoy, providing environments for outdoor learning on campus, including extensive playgrounds, an orchard, an allotment, a wooded area, and a large field. The plants have been included in a bedding area just outside the school building, planted by the schools own gardening club. They will help boost biodiversity, and provide a space for the pupils to enjoy, bringing them closer with nature. The school said “this kind gesture has helped make our school grounds look even better and supported us with our ongoing green mission.”
Greening Arundel
New to Greenwood Community, in November we donated a collection of mixed plants to Greening Arundel. The group is an alliance of fifteen different organisations in the local area, who are committed to driving environmental change in Arundel. Through collective action and community engagement, the group have engaged in a variety of different planting projects across the town. Their work has helped increase the biodiversity of the local ecosystem, providing vital wildlife corridors through hedge and tree planting, as well as providing a great social benefit, through their planting projects in the town centre; these are enjoyed by local residents and tourists alike. Being situated so close to Greenwood’s Fresh Acres headquarters, we are thrilled to be getting involved with such a worthwhile project, and look forward to making further donations in the future.
If you would like to nominate a project or organisation for a Greenwood Community donation, get in touch with us today.
