... and tomatoes, and courgettes, and sweetcorn and runner beans...

EMMA DUNN reports on a project helping a group of adults learn about the world of work ADULTS with learning disabilities are growing so much more than fruit and veg at Jubilee Gardens Project.

The charity, based at Church Bush Hall centre in Purton Stoke, encourages its 23 students to grow and develop their skills through horticultural work. They sell their produce to the public and local businesses – and they get great feedback too.

The students also learn literacy, numeracy and social skills at the project, and as a result some students go on to find work.

Principal of Jubilee Gardens Project, Bruce Porter, who has worked there for 31 years, said: “It’s a training resource for adults with a learning disability. There are no age confines. We specialise in horticulture but we also do literacy and numeracy.

“It’s very real. The students say they are coming to work and it is structured like work.

“The project gets them used to the work routine and they are carrying out a worthwhile activity. You get an awful lot of kudos when the customers say ‘what wonderful veg you have grown’.

“It’s a very real experience for them. They get a lot of self esteem from doing something productive and feeling they are making a valuable contribution to life in general.”

Students learn a range of cultivation skills, including sowing, plant care, weeding and harvesting. They also learn how to maintain the vegetable plots, hedges and drainage systems, and how to use appropriate tools such as mowers and strimmers.

They sell the fruit, veg and flowers to the public from their road-side market stall weekdays from 9am to 4pm in summer and 9am to 3pm in winter.

Jubilee Gardens Project also supplies businesses, including Swindon Pulse and the Red Lion pub in Cricklade.

These opportunities help the students build everyday knowledge and skills such as literacy, numeracy, colour recognition and the concept of time.

This is supplemented with classroom-based work to further develop and practice these skills.

The project, which has three full-time staff, as well as a specialist lecturer and a cook, is based in an old village primary school at Purton Stoke.

As well as the main building, there are several greenhouses and outbuildings and a series of polythene growing tunnels, some of which are in the 2.75 acre field which also belongs to the project.

They grow parsnips, carrots, beetroot, spinach, courgettes, fennel, sweetcorn, runner beans, French beans, lettuce, cabbages, squash, onions, aubergines and peppers.

They also grow eight varieties of tomatoes, as well as melons and cucumbers.

“The students are so proud of it all. This project is so important for them. If they weren’t here, what would they be doing?” said Bruce.

“Some students have previously tried going into work and things have broken down and they have ended up at home watching television and getting unhealthy. They need challenges.

“Horticultural work is a very good medium for teaching people. All the students are here because they want to be here.

“Jubilee Gardens Project has got a very good reputation for growing great produce and it’s all organically grown,” he said.

“We have got a very loyal and regular customer base. We won’t sell anything we wouldn’t be prepared to buy ourselves.”

Bruce is a trained social worker and his wife Jackie, who also works at the project, is trained in teaching adults with learning disabilities.

Jackie said: “For some people the objective is to come and get confidence and go on to employment and for others it’s to maintain their place here so they have got something they really like to do.”

Among the students is Stephen Reed, 53, of Purton, who has been coming to the project for about five years.

“It’s nice here. It’s something to get me out the house and meeting all the other students,” he said.

“We come here miserable and before long we come out happy. We all cheer each other up.”

Fellow student Richard Lawson, 54, of Lyneham, who has been coming to the project for about seven years, said: “I like coming here, we all do. I feel happy when I’m here.”

Jubilee Gardens Project has an open day on the first Saturday in December. It also has an open day in May.

For more information or to arrange a visit to see the produce growing, phone 01793 771539, visit www.jubileegardens.co.uk or email info@jubileegardens.co.uk.