We an 18 acre organic care farm in rural Cambridgeshire. Our farm and garden team placements are open to people with additional needs, our Co-workers. We specialise in providing therapeutic horticulture to people with learning difficulties, disabilities and those with varying health needs. We are a real farm providing real work experience producing real organic products and produce.
Our care farm & shop is nestled between Swaffham Prior & Reach in Cambridgeshire. Our gates are open and our farm is fully accessible. Come find us.
Prospects Trust at Snakehall Farm is a vibrant working and learning environment. The farm is managed by a friendly, committed and organised team who foster a real community spirit. It is rare to find a social firm which provides such a welcoming, accessible and supportive environment in combination with an efficient professional approach. We have a very positive ongoing relationship with Snakehall Farm and are always delighted to have the opportunity to work with them.
Individual Curriculum Team at Cambridge Regional College
CRC
I love The Prospects Trust’s Farm Shop. It is the one place where cucumbers don’t come shrink wrapped and tomatoes that taste like a perfect summer day!
Wow! We can’t send you a Co-worker letter of thanks, we can’t name you in our annual accounts, we can’t even look you in the eye and sincerely say thank you to your face but to us here at The Prospects Trust we thank you our amazing Anonymous donor(s).
We have just finished thanking all of our donors supporting our Canopy of Care Crowdfunder and realised just how many anonymous donations we have recieved for this appeal and so many others.
Since we started to use LocalGiving to manage our online donations we have received over £10,000 in anonymous donations, from the one off to the regular monthly donor. This year with our Canopy of Care and Survive to Thrive appeals a staggering £6,700 has been donated by the silent giver.
So today we raise our cup of kindness to you, the Anonymous Donor. May your day be as super as you are. You are our nameless hero who is now know as the ones who cannot be thanked. You know who you are and now hopefully you know how much you mean to us all at The Prospects Trust.
We thank you for your support.
To join the ranks of our Unnamed Donors you can donate anonymously or in person here: Local Giving Page
We are really proud of our Co-workers for their adaptability to change caused by Covid-19. They have embraced keeping their “Tilly Tractor” distance, wearing face coverings and washing their hands…..and well washing everything. Take a look at our foggy Thursday in action:
We have made a “Doorstep” Co-worker film! Last month we delivered Prospects Parcels to our socially isolated Co-workers, safely being supported in their homes during lockdown. We are all missing having our Co-workers on site at Snakehall Farm, serving customers at Unwrapped and keeping everyone’s garden’s tidy in the community. It is the strangest of times so we wanted to share a little joy and connect our people back to our charity.
We are a CARE farm still farming, we are a SOCIAL enterprise still trading but without the people its the trickiest of times. Please share our Keep Tilly Tractor Farming film, please Donate if you can and please stay safe.
A big thank you to:
all the Co-worker cast (and the behind the scenes support crew – their families and carers),
to all the Co-workers who didn’t want to be captured in film but have their own Tilly on a Stick at home and can’t wait to come back,
to all those who have supported The Prospects Trust over the past 30 years and are continuing to support us right now,
to all of our new and loyal customers who are shopping local and keeping our enterprise trading,
to all of our new fundraisers and donors picking a small charity to support we seriously do a little dance for every £5 that gets donated
to all of our staff (either staring in the film), working behind the scenes or trying to turn their own gardens into farms during furlough,
to our Trustee Board for allowing the already stretched resources to make time for this joy,
And a special mention to the talents of our Support Workers Adam T and Adam V for the film and music magic.
Simply donate your lockdown Haircut or beard trim cost savings to our Bad Hair Do Care fundraising appeal and help keep our farm growing while our Co-workers are socially shielding.
Step 2: Share your Bad Hair photo on our @TillyTractor Facebook Page with your donation AND nominate your usual hairdresser or barber* to win a Produce Hamper full of goodies from The Prospects Trust at Snakehall Farm & Prospects Trust Unwrapped. Use the #BadHairDoCare.
Step 3: Grab the scissors and a bowl………………………..there’s only a week between a bad and a good haircut!
*for logistic reasons only please ensure your nominated hairdresser/barber is based in a 20 mile radius of CB25 0HZ or CB7 4EG,
Ely’s first
zero waste greengrocery and refill larder, Prospects Trust Unwrapped, made a special
top of the class delivery to its friends at Highfield Ely today while on their
busy home delivery rounds. Highfield
School learners have been part of the social enterprise since it opened last
September and the team at Unwrapped wanted to send some treats to their
frontline friends.
Prospects
Trust Unwrapped had to transform its retail offering practically overnight with
the early warnings of Covid-19 and in just once month has turned from a “buy
just what you need” busy and bustling shop into a non-contact home delivery
service of larder bulk buys. As a
registered charity that supports people with additional needs, their mission is
#survivetothrive until the time that Unwrapped can reopen and continue to
provide innovative social care placements in the shop.
Tom
Cockerton, Manager of Prospects Trust Unwrapped said “we have been astounded, and
at times overwhelmed, by the swell of customer orders and loyal support to our
social enterprise. It helped that for a short
while we were the only shop in Ely to have toilet rolls and bread yeast, which
we still have in regular supply. Our
customers are now making weekly orders of our fruit and veg boxes stocked with seasonal
and organic produce as well as their core staples of porridge oats and coffee
beans. I like to think in a small way we
are not just providing critical groceries we are also keeping in touch with our
customer fan base”.
Prospects
Trust Unwrapped closed its café and put a temporary halt to training placements
at the end of March before the national lock down began as a quick measure to
keep everyone safe, especially their Co-worker trainees. Overnight the shop created
a basic online delivery form, using the skills of a returning Uni student and harnessing
the whole of the small workforce, launched Unwrapped Home Delivery.
Customers
can now select all their regular store cupboard basics and get their family’s five-a-day
weekly veg & fruit online. The staff
team prepare the order and give a phone call to the customer to let them know when
to expect a non-contact doorstep delivery.
Clare Rees, Unwrapped Support Worker said “we are proud that we can
still continue to provide that friendly personal service, something our shielding
and vulnerable customers really need in these times.”
Maz
Baker, Development Manager for The Prospects Trust said “as a small charity we
are facing the hardest of times, as are so many other frontline services and
social good causes. Nobody is excluded
from the challenges of Covid-19 but as a charity we want to #StrivetoThrive. We felt it was right to reach out to other
organisations that are providing frontline care to keyworker children, and, our
special friends at Highfield School. The
best way to survive is to support each other.
We hope that people will continue to support us by shopping with us at
Unwrapped”.
The
Prospects Trust has launched a charity appeal, #Survive to Thrive to help the
30 year old charity weather the lockdown and be ready for a bumper harvest with
the Co-workers (adults with additional needs) once they are safe to return to
their day placements at Snakehall Farm, at Unwrapped and on the Garden
Team. Donations can be made https://localgiving.org/appeal/survivetothrive/
or via Facebook https://www.facebook.com/tilly.tractor/posts/2936117949758755.
Prospects
Trust Unwrapped was selected as an Aviva Community Fund good cause before the outbreak
of Covid-19 and due to the challenging circumstances, Aviva has extended their Crowdfunding
period, donations to support Unwrapped can be made online at: https://www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/refill-not-landfill
We have until lunchtime of the April 22nd to raise £3000 in pledges. We want to Unwrap Unwrapped further and we need your help! Click here to go to the Aviva Crowdfunder Page and pledge your support to The Prospects Trust.
Prospects Trust Unwrapped opened in September 2019 and has started a refill revolution for the local consumers of Ely, but more vitally, it has become the little shop where magic happens. The Prospects Trust wanted to open a REAL shop to provide REAL work-based training opportunities for people with additional needs. It wanted to create an outlet for all the organic produce sown, grown and harvested by their Snakehall Farm Co-workers and it wanted to give Ely a different way to shop. In just six months, Unwrapped has been created, launched and now offers 18 placements per week to individuals with additional needs. Unwrapped has already supported 4 learners gain accredited qualifications in retail and food safety and has just enrolled a further 7 learners for 2020. Unwrapped has created retail opportunities for over 15 local eco artisans in their Craftisan Pods. Unwrapped has created a sustainable solution to single-use plastic with its novel Refill Larder Wall and loose produce baskets.
Co-workers creating new dishes from local produce
Now we want to UNWRAP the outside. We wish to transform the outside of the shop front into an accessible cafe area, with raised bed planters and cycle racks, doggie area and pushchair park. We want to offer more space for more locals to linger longer in our unique Unwrapped store. Your support will see us transform an old inaccessible gravel area into an upcycled, recycled and accessible seating area. By increasing the seating area outside we aim to attract more customers to be served by more Co-workers, helping us put their new found retail skills to the test with the ultimate aim of getting paid employment for our Unwrapped Trainees in their local community.
Prospects Trust Trainee Placements are now available, starting from September 2019, we are bringing a new way to learn on to the high street of Ely. We are looking to recruit 20 new Co-worker Trainees to be our first cohort to gain accredited qualifications in retail and food safety.
Trainee Placement Poster
Take a look at our flexible training programme, with 2 day placements starting from £50 per week. Download our Placement Pack or contact us on 01638 741551 for more information.
The Prospects Trust Unwrapped Canopy of Care project is going to create “more than just a place to sit” for the community of Ely & East Cambridgeshire. We wish to install a commercial grade canopy across our outside fully accessible seating area outside of Unwrapped, LuvEly’s Community Larder and Lighthouse Community Centre to enable our Co-workers, Customers and Community Groups to have a safe place to interact (at a distance). Our Canopy of Care will be a physical hug of a cover to those suffering isolation during Covid. We wish to create a well-managed safe place in the heart of Ely where people can still meet in the winter, outside and supported. Pre and during Covid-19 many Community support groups have used Unwrapped as a meeting point. The Canopy of Care will cover our outside well-spaced seating to enable this vital human interaction to continue and make sure that everyone has someone to care for and be cared by.
In Sept 2019 our local and very established charity opened a very new and innovative social enterprise – Unwrapped, Ely’s first Zero Waste, Eco-Refill Larder & truly GREEN-grocery. A year of trading and Unwrapped has put social enterprise on the Ely high street, with young people with additional needs at the heart of action, making the barista pro coffee, serving customers on state of the art tills and creating fantastic products from the shop and farm produce. But imagine running a zero single use plastic refill store & farm food café in the middle of a Global Pandemic, its been interesting. However what we learnt – we can survive this together.
Over lockdown we reduced the internal head count, created hand sanitiser stations, provided free home delivery to our shielding customers and sadly removed our internal seating to make room for “social distancing”. Our staff and Co-worker Teams were the first to wear face coverings in the City, making Covid precautions a new norm, vital as we support some of the most vulnerable in our society. This summer we created a whole new outside seating area from donations, crowdfunding and lots of upcycling creativity. Our customers flocked to support our (their) enterprise; shopping local, seasonally, sustainably and supporting Unwrapped as we dare to retail differently. They even helped create the planters outside our seating area, help lay foundations and erect the benches, tables and give back their time and expertise to make it happen. All this was tricky while the sun shined – now Winter is indeed coming and we wish to create a little Canopy of Care to keep that warmth in all of our hearts.
Donate a tenner and kick off our Crowdstarter, donate £20 to be our Crowdpleaser and if you can £50 to be our Chief Crowdonor! Keep it local, keep safe and keep happy at Prospects Trust Unwrapped – retailing differently since before Covid-19 and unwrapping more than just a place to sit!
Thank you to all of our supporters to date – we have already raised a third of our appeal total – lets make Lockdown worth something and have something to look forward to when we can meet up again!
We have a volunteering “boot camp” with a difference starting this month at Snakehall Farm. Forget your lounge based Wicks workout or your daily Boris walk we can offer you a different way to get fit, an 18 acre farm needs volunteers to help weed and get ready for the big harvest of 2020.
We are an 18 acre care farm, but in light of the recent pandemic we have closed our farm gates to our co-workers (adults with additional needs) and are working on a rota based tiny workforce. Because of this, we are finding it hard to keep on top of the weeding and watering at Snakehall Farm. Being organic, we do not use any chemicals, which makes our veg taste great but the care of the crops is more laborious.
We are looking for volunteers to come in for a couple of hours a day, ideally in the mornings when it is not too hot in the polytunnels. We are all abiding by social distancing rules, so we would ask that our volunteers do the same. The idea is that we will set a task away from other staff and once completed, our volunteers can go home. We have all the tools and equipment necessary, but we ask that you bring in your own gloves, and wear good boots. Toe protectors would be ideal, but not vital, as we wouldn’t be asking you to use any tools that are deemed dangerous. We also ask that you bring in your own tea/coffee/water to avoid cross contamination.
Interested? Give us a call to find out our next available slot or email [email protected] for more details.
