At PEM, we are fortunate enough to be given two paid days of volunteering per year, which allows us to give back to the local community.
In February, we volunteered at Great and Little Shelford Primary School as part of a project the PEM Charitable Trust funded with local charity Cultivating Change.
In September 2024, Cultivating Change applied for a grant of £1675 from the PEM Charitable Trust to fund a wholistic planting project for a primary school in Cambridgeshire. Cultivating Change are a charity based in Cambridge which promotes wellbeing through gardening and growing your own produce, with their long-term vision being horticultural activities that benefit people’s wellbeing to be embedded in educational, healthcare, & community policies. Founders Sally Nye and Rosie Ferrandino met with staff from Great and Little Shelford Primary School and decided that the combination of their enthusiastic teachers coupled with their large patch of unused outdoor area made the school the perfect choice for the project.
PEM was delighted to fund the project and our ESG & Community Lead Amy Hayden visited the school before Christmas to hear Cultivating Change present to the students about the project. We then arranged a volunteer day so we could get stuck in preparing the area for growing!
We provided a PEM team of volunteers who visited the school and were set to work building raised beds for planting, moving compost and painting tyres. The weather was mixed but mainly stayed dry, apart from the last 15 minutes when they were clearing up and taking their group picture!
“It was such a wonderful day, full of hard work, humour and the volunteers from PEM were so hardworking and passionate about getting the garden built quickly. We honestly couldn’t have achieved it without their help. In a few hours, we have made such a difference to the school and their outdoor gardening work.” Sally Nye, Founder of Cultivating Change.
Grant applications reopen on 1 April and details of how to apply can be found here.
