A CORONAVIRUS fund grant is helping to give youngsters a taste of farm life again after months of lockdown.

Jamie’s Farm, near Corsham, hosts hundreds of young people a year, including from schools in Swindon.

Founded by Jamie Feilden and his mum Tish in 2010, the charity takes teenagers from urban environments and gives them a week working and playing on the farm.

But it had to close down in March and only began restricted visits in July with the help of a £5,000 grant from the Wiltshire Community Foundation’s Coronavirus Response and Recovery Fund.

Schools such as Swindon Academy, Nova Hreod and Abbey Park, identify young people at risk or who are struggling and bring them in groups of 10 or 12 to help care for its pigs, cows, lambs and sheep and pick organic vegetables.

Jamie’s Farm fundraiser Matthew Chambers said the grant has been invaluable.

He said: “Where this grant is so valuable is to support us continuing those visits. With Covid and things taking a while to start up again, we anticipate we are going to lose half our earned income from groups this year,”

“This grant is hugely important to us this year to make sure those visits can happen.

Matthew added: “We have been concerned about the impact of lockdown on young people and these visits will help to make sense of it.

"For some of them the world isn’t as safe a place as they thought it was, so these visits will be a chance for them to process what they’ve been through in lockdown, be re-introduced to their peers and get back into a daily routine.”