Our Partner Charity, Devon Organic Farm

 

Our partner charity is the wonderful Farms For City Children. They are a children’s charity with three working farms that welcome over 3200 children and 400 teachers every year. Founded by children’s author, Michael Morpurgo and his wife Clare in the depths of Devon, the charity offers children from cities all over the country the unique opportunity to live and work together on a real farm in the heart of the countryside.

The charity was founded at Nethercott House in Devon, a few miles away from our farm. It’s a huge Victorian manor house, with beautiful grounds and amazing views towards Dartmoor. There are organic milking Friesians, sheep and a beef herd. Here, the children who may not know where their food comes from, get the chance to ‘learn through doing’ and experience a different life for a week. They can help look after donkeys and a wide range of poultry, get hands on in the veg garden and enjoy the fruits of their labour in hearty meals. For a child who doesn’t often get to explore the outside world, this can be truly magical.

 

Farms for City Children aims to encourage active learning, raise self-esteem and give children life-long memories. Their main objectives are:

• Understanding farming, the countryside and food production.
• Social and emotional development through teamwork.
• Immersion and total involvement through a whole seven-day stay a ‘world away’.
• Celebrating success and building self-worth through work and the completion of tasks.
• Learning about healthy eating.
• Using practical, hands-on learning outside the classroom to enhance the requirements of the national curriculum.
• Drawing on the farm experience and the charity’s literary heritage to promote literacy and storytelling.
• Building and developing relationships.
• Addressing poverty of experience arising not just from economic and social deprivation, but also from the effects of increasing materialism.

When you buy our organic Kid’s Bangers and Christmas Cards (coming soon!), you’re helping this fantastic cause! Keep up with all the action on our social media to see our latest Farms For City Children projects and more.