The Community Farm wins social enterprise award

The Community Farm has been announced as a winner in the Santander Social Enterprise Development Awards receiving £50,000 to expand its organic food business.

The Community Farm delivers vegetable boxes across Bristol, Bath, the Chew Valley and Frome supplying local and organic seasonal produce grown on the 28 acres under production, or supplied by local Somerset organic growers as part of a co-operative arrangement. The Farm is community-owned and offers volunteering opportunities, training and education to adults and children whatever their abilities and needs. The Santander Award will allow the enterprise to buy essential farm equipment, develop its community engagement and volunteering work and equip its Yurt for Learning and education area to run outdoor cooking lessons.

Julian Alexander, Santander Regional Director, said: “At Santander we are committed to supporting communities and the Social Enterprise Development Awards were set up to help enterprises in the South West looking to expand. The Community Farm has a great business model, generating an income at the same time as providing a social good. With increasing interest in organic and sustainable living they have great potential to grow and we’re very pleased to be able to help them realise their ambitions.”

Alison Belshaw, Project Manager, The Community Farm said: “The Santander Award will allow us to invest in the business, helping to make us more resilient and to reach our trade targets. This, in turn, will allow us to extend our community engagement work to support more volunteers as well as adults with learning difficulties or disabilities.”

Santander’s 2013 Social Enterprise Development Awards saw a further 13 awards given to social enterprises in the South West. Alive! Activities, Bristol Wood Recycling, Wild Futures, Cowden Farm, The Cheese and Grain, Future Roots and Compass all received the £20,000 award. Source FM, Square Food Foundation, Restech, Nature Workshops and Sims Hill Shared Harvest have received £10,000.

The Awards are part of Santander’s commitment to supporting small businesses in the UK. Social enterprises play a vital role in local communities by helping to deliver social regeneration and the SEDA scheme aims to help those with potential to expand their work.

Alongside the prize money, winning social enterprises receive access to support from Santander including mentoring programmes, funding for internships and bespoke training.

Winning organisations will also receive valuable input from Quartet Community Foundation which will work with them to assess the social impact of their business and the effect the award will have on local communities.