Hands of Hope is a community charity, currently restoring a neglected walled kitchen garden and 22 acres of AONB land in Hawkhurst containing a Gill woodland, seven ponds, a small heritage orchard and two wildflower meadows.
Since 2019, we have been delivering community programmes aimed at tackling food poverty, rural isolation and loneliness, as well as improving mental and physical health for communities throughout Rother, Hastings and West Kent. Projects include: get growing, Hawkhurst shedders, bee in company, Helping Hands lunch clubs and rural crafts training.
Additionally, during Covid-19, we were able to create a productive organic market garden accruing over 1,000 volunteer hours as well as delivering tonnes of fresh produce to local food banks and families in need.
Substantial investment is now required to progress Hope Farm garden, not only to enable the provision of a richer and more diverse learning environment on site, but to allow us to deliver outreach community programmes. Our plans include repurposing the dilapidated pump house, creating a new heritage and rural crafts training area as well as improving site access and installing visual aids to promote the site’s natural history and biodiversity.
Our aim is to support a thriving and inclusive community made up of service users, volunteers, service providers, and corporate users. Although provision will remain focused on improving the health and wellbeing of people and the planet by tackling food poverty, rural isolation, and loneliness, our key objective is to articulate our delivery across four main themes: horticulture, nature, heritage and food, supporting four main delivery aims: training, education, therapy and community. All under the slogan “Growing Together – Building Healthier Communities.”
By taking a few minutes to complete our survey, your feedback will help to ensure that we align our plans directly with local and regional needs and address the primary social and community issues that have been identified.
You can read more about the charity here.
Image Credits: Hands of Hope .