Tag Archives: Volunteering

Community, News

volunteering – food growing and community gardens

Advice from Lambeth Together / Printable PDF version

Coronavirus Advice April 2020
Food Growing and Gardening Activities

We know that outdoor activities such as food growing and/or gardening activities can help us feel good and be beneficial for health and wellbeing. This activity can be used as the one form of exercise for the day.

Now more than ever it is important to support people to feel safe and comfortable to grow food and to practice safe measures when doing so. This guidance for community gardens during Covid-19 has been sourced and compiled from trusted sources including Public Health England, Sustain and the NHS.

Guidance for access and travel to community gardens

  • Community gardens should be accessible only to members who live close by and not open to the public.
  • Anyone considered medically vulnerable/ subject to government shielding advice should not visit the community garden.
  • Rotas should be set up where there are a lot of members to limit to single households going into the community garden at any one time.
  • During Covid-19 outbreak growers should wherever possible travel to gardens by bike or foot. At no time should public transport be used.
  • Those who are deemed vulnerable and classified as in the “shielded” group should stay at home
  • Anyone displaying a fever or dry cough or has someone in their household with these symptoms should stay at home and comply with national guidance
  • www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance/stay-athome-guidance-for-households-with-possible-coronavirus-covid-19-infection
  • Garden leaders should publicise visitor restrictions on any communications and on external signage. This should include reference to government guidance on social distancing.

Social distancing and sanitation

  • At all times, social distance (minimum 2m) must be maintained between growers.
  • Hand washing should be followed according to government guidance. Wash your hands when you arrive at the garden, wear gloves while working in the garden and ensure you only use your own gloves and take those home with you in a disposable bag
  • Have hand sanitiser available and use before opening and closing any gate locks.
  • Ensure any visitor to the site washes their hands with soap and water if available, or with hand sanitiser before they engage in growing activities even if they are going to wear gloves.
  • Growers should only use tools if wearing (own) gloves, otherwise no tools to be shared
  • Do not offer guest gloves to garden visitors or volunteers during this period.
  • If children are onsite, ensure that they stay within its confines and do not run around on communal paths and spaces.
  • All associated communal facilities should be closed. e.g. tea making facilities

Please check current information on websites and social media of local organisations with volunteer gardening and food growing projects, as conditions are constantly changing. Please let us know if you are a project that would like to be listed.

Lambeth Larder http://www.lambethlarder.org/food-growing.html

Incredible Edible Lambeth https://www.incredibleediblelambeth.org/

Brockwell Community Greenhouses https://www.brockwellgreenhouses.org.uk/

Friends of Windmill Gardens https://www.brixtonwindmill.org/

Great North Wood https://www.wildlondon.org.uk/great-north-wood

Myatts Filed Park Project https://www.myattsfieldspark.info/

Community, News

volunteering – lambeth food hub

Lambeth has set up a food hub in Brixton to focus collection and distribution of rood to people in need. To volunteer, please follow this link

We have heard that potential volunteers are not hearing back from Lambeth soon after applying. Please be assured that Lambeth are working through hundreds of ID checks and will respond.

For those already volunteering, or thinking of doing so, please follow this advice from Lambeth Together / Printable PDF version

Guidance for access and travel

  • Anyone considered medically vulnerable/ subject to government shielding advice should not visit or volunteer in a food hub. Those who are deemed vulnerable and classified as in the “shielded” group should stay at home
  • During Covid-19 outbreak growers should wherever possible travel by bike or foot. At no time should public transport be used.
  • Anyone displaying a fever or dry cough or has someone in their household with these symptoms should stay at home and comply with national guidance
  • www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance/stay-athome-guidance-for-households-with-possible-coronavirus-covid-19-infection
  • Food Hub leaders/managers should publicise restrictions on any communications and on external signage. This should include reference to government guidance on social distancing.

Social distancing and sanitation

  • It is very unlikely that you can catch coronavirus from food. COVID-19 is a respiratory illness. It is not known to be transmitted by exposure to food or food packaging. See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-food-businesses/guidance-for-food-businesses-on-coronavirus-covid-19
  • Although it is very unlikely that coronavirus is transmitted through food, as a matter of good hygiene practice anyone handling food should wash their hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. This should be done as a matter of routine, before and after handling food, and especially after being in a public place, blowing their nose, coughing, or sneezing.
  • Frequently clean and disinfect objects and surfaces that are touched regularly, using your standard cleaning products
  • Take steps to avoid crowding and minimise opportunities for the virus to spread by maintaining a distance of 2 metres between individuals, wherever possible.
  • –  No goods or food should be physically handed over to the customer. There should instead be a set drop-off point agreed in advance.
  • If you decide the work should go ahead, you should advise staff to wash their hands frequently using soap and water for 20 seconds, and especially after blowing their nose, sneezing or coughing, on arrival at work, before and after eating, after using public transport, and when they arrive home. Where facilities to wash hands are not available, hand sanitiser should be used.
  • If you decide the work should continue, staff should work side by side or facing away from each other rather than face-to-face if possible.
  • You should increase the frequency of cleaning procedures, pausing production in the day if necessary for cleaning staff to wipe down workstations with disinfectant.
  • You should assign staff to the same shift teams to limit social interaction.
  • You should not allow staff to congregate in break times; you should consider arrangements such as staggered break times so that staff can continue to practice social distancing when taking breaks.
  • Consider adding additional pop-up handwashing stations or facilities, providing soap, water and/or hand sanitiser.