As part of our Employee Volunteering Day this April, Neilcott have assisted in making significant advancements of the works at The Wolves Lane Centre.
The Wolves Lane Centre is a gem based in Haringey and is one of the few pivotal places left in England like it. At its core, it is a horticultural centre and community food growing hub, focused on growing and distributing sustainably produced food and plants, whilst also offering a hub for education, enterprise and events. Above everything, the centre aspires to make food accessible to all, and is a place for members of the community to come together and really make a difference.
Since 2019 they have been fundraising to complete 3 new eco-builds to enhance the facilities and services that they can offer at the centre. The 3 new straw bale builds by Work Ltd, Studio Gil & Material Cultures are almost complete, but with covid disruption & spiralling costs to contend with, the centre needs a little more help to get their fantastic new facilities finished.
Working closely with the Centre Manager Denise Farrell, our Sustainability Director Ashleigh Goss, Operational Director Ricky Limacher, Social Value Manager Jenny Bignell & our internal Groundworks Team led by Ned Ismaili, devised a volunteering proposal to assist the centre with some key outstanding tasks that take the works a little closer to Practical Completion & release of some much needed funding.
Our Groundworks Team, led by Ned & Ricky, visited site on numerous occasions to ascertain its condition, determine logistical arrangements for the day, identify risks for inclusion with our RAMs, and provide expert advice (including security, airtightness details, safety, drainage etc.) to the Centre Manager for future elements of the build process, including the completion of a Topo Survey to assess ground levels and ensure alignment with the initial drawings.
Working with field experts, including Annie from The Hemp Block Company, our volunteers learnt the fundamentals of clay plastering.
We got stuck in with coating the internal areas of the newly built Building C, which will provide space to package food parcels and store food within a cold store for resell to the community.
We also delivered groundworks, to assist in the development of the sub base, including the transportation of recycled aggregate to various areas onsite & compacting the material using a compactor plate.
Thank you to the 45 volunteers that joined us and a huge thank you to our supply chain partners who kindly donated vital equipment, free of charge, to assist in the delivery of the works, including Consara, who donated Type 1X/Type 3 recycled aggregate, GGH Hire for equipment, AJ Hills for plastering equipment & Ingleton Wood for their time.
The Wolves Lane Centre do absolutely amazing work to support their community & promote racial justice – they would be very grateful for any further support we can garner from our supply chain to complete their new facilities. Please visit https://www.woodsandgreens.co.uk/eco-build for more information on the Wolves Lane Centre & its major transformation, as well as a list of materials needed on-site.