A NEW charity created by three men in Lower Earley spiralled from planting fruit trees to aiming to feed the borough.
Freely Fruity began with the idea to grow the trees in public spaces, but when coronavirus hit, the men decided to produce food for the vulnerable people in their community instead.
Founders Ryan Simpson, James Wittingham and Matthew Knight met up at their local pub and hatched the idea to secretly plant trees on public land, so the fruit could be available to everyone.
“We wanted to grow free food to help our community reduce
its carbon footprint” said Mr Knight, Head of Sustainability and Ecology at
Shinfield St Mary’s CE Junior School:
“But then Covid-19 hit three weeks later and it really threw a spanner in the
works”.
Their plans changed when a field was donated to them — on a temporary basis — by Hatch Farm Land, which owns plots across the country.
Now with an acre of space — which conveniently backs onto Mr Wittingham’s garden — they decided to grow food for their community.
They prepared the land using equipment they had received in another donation from Kieran McDonagh, who works at landscaping and construction company, The Wroxton Group.
They began by planting potatoes, peas, carrots and onions under Mr Knight’s guidance, as he grows food daily in his school’s biodome.
A member of the community also donated strawberry and raspberry plants to them, and Mr Knight hopes they will continue to seed and produce fruit all summer.
He said: “It’s been a learning curve as we’ve gone from planting trees to actually producing food on a large-ish scale very quickly.
“The response from the community has been amazing – there has been so many people offering to help, but because of social distancing, we’ve had to turn some of them down.”
As they are all working reduced hours due to the virus, they have been able to spread out their shifts on the farm and maintain isolation.
They are hoping to begin distributing the fruit and vegetables through social media and Food Banks after their first major harvest this summer.
Mr Knight said they hope to give this food to everyone in Lower Earley that needs it, and aims to plant community fruit trees across the country.
For more information, visit www.facebook.com/freelyfruityuk
