A team from Jaguar Land Rover swapped desks and offices for spades and sunshine when they volunteered at Crow Recycling. The group from the Vehicle Efficiency Group at the luxury car giant's Gaydon base spent a day in Crow Recycling's garden. They planted fruit trees, built compost bins, laid a woodchip surface between raised beds and made improvements to access. The garden, currently being funded by the National Lottery, is where Crow's service users, mainly adults with learning difficulties, learn to grow food. This year's harvest included cucumbers, courgettes and tomatoes. The project has seen Crow's service users getting out in the sunshine and eating the vegetables they have grown. The newly planted fruit trees will see apples, pears and plums added to the list. The apple tree is a Wyken Pippin, a traditional Coventry variety named after the Wyken area of the city. Pete Taylor, engineering manager at JLR said: "The sun is shining - we thought it was going to be rainy. This has been good hard work and we feel we are really achieving something." Crow Recycling office manager Lucy Lynch said: "It was brilliant to have the help. The team worked really hard and we're really grateful they chose us for their team volunteering event. The building is called Orchard House but until now there was no orchard. Jaguar Land Rover along with with our grant from the National Lottery and Team SpringBoard CIC's horticultural know how have helped us put that right. And we have a woodchip surface between the beds, a step where one was needed, compost bins and the beginnings of better access." The gardening project is a partnership with community gardening organisation Team SpringBoard CIC. Team Springboard's [...]

BBC reporter Marion McNamee visited Crow for live broadcast on the BBC Coventry and Warwickshire's breakfast show. There was an earlier than usual start so Marion could have everything ready in time to go on air just before 8am then again later in the morning. Chairman of trustees Bill Smith explained to listeners about Crow's volunteering opportunities for people with learning difficulties. Lucy Lynch talked about volunteering opportunities for disabled people. Esther Kovacs, Team Springboard's horticultural manager, talked about the new food growing garden she's helping Crow with. Thanks to Marion and Phil at the BBC for getting Crow on air. Here is a link to the show with Crow on 1 hour and 52 minutes into the programme https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0j9zs36 Here is the report about Crow on the BBC website https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg11pxgdlro

A big thanks from Crow Recycling to members of Good Gym who helped Crow Recycling set up a gardening project. The group visited Crow Recycling in their spare time to spread an incredible three tonnes of top soil on the area which will become a vegetable and fruit growing garden. They ran from Coventry city centre to Crow’s warehouse in Sparkbrook Street, Hillfields, where the top soil was waiting in three bags of a tonne each. With a wheelbarrows, spades and shovels they spread it across an area levelled for the purpose. The gardening project will see Crow Recycling’s disabled volunteers growing food for themselves and for city food banks and social supermarkets. Crow Recycling is working with community garden not for profit Team Springboard CIC on the project. Good Gym were overseen by Team Springboard horticultural manager Esther Kovacs. Crow Recycling office manager Lucy Lynch said: “A big thank you to Good Gym for their amazing feat of spreading out three tonnes of soil. The certainly had a work out and we have the beginnings of a garden.”

Everyone at Crow Recycling knows the muscles in their legs are stronger than the muscles in their backs thanks to a grant for manual handling training from the Heart of England Community Foundation. The cash from the Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire Communities Fund has paid for one of the Crow staff members to train as a manual handling instructor. Once he had done the training he teamed up with fellow staff and some of Crow's trustees to devise and teach a course tailored to the needs of Crow's volunteers. Most of the Crow Recycling volunteers have learning difficulties so the course included lots of practical skills, plenty of time to learn key theory and verbal rather than written assessments. Office manager Lucy Lynch said: "The course means trainees can tackle a wider range of tasks at Crow. They have the knowledge, the practical experience and the certificate to prove it if they want to move on to a more demanding work placement or a paid job."

A grant from the Eveson Trust is helping Crow Recycling provide work placements for people with disabilities.The trust has made a generous donation towards running costs at the Coventry based charity. The money will help with costs such as insurance which are essential to keeping the charity up and running.Office manager Lucy Lynch said: "We run various commercial services which bring in an income but it's not nearly enough to cover all our costs. The Eveson Trust grant, along with grants from other similar organisations, means we can bridge the gap."We're particularly grateful that the grant is for general running costs such as insurance. Those costs can be hard to find grants for but are an essential part of any organisation."Crow Recycling is a registered charity providing volunteer work placements for disabled people. Crow does this by providing a commercial service destroying confidential waste, processing non confidential paper for recycling, crushing and baling aluminium cans for recycling and selling animal bedding. Crow also runs a Scrapstore selling reused items to use for arts and crafts and processes used books.Volunteers include pupils from special schools, college students and older people on longer term placements.

The fire doors at Crow Recycling have been upgraded and replaced thanks to the Screwfix Foundation. A generous donation from the foundation has paid for some of the fire doors to be upgraded and others replaced at Crow Recycling's warehouse in Sparkbrook Street, Hillfields, Coventry. Office manager Lucy Lynch said: "Funding for fire safety measures can be difficult for charities to find even though fire safety is a vital part of running any organisation. So we are particularly grateful to the Screwfix Foundation for providing us with the money for this work." "The new and upgraded doors will help keep our staff, volunteers, customers and visitors safe as well as protecting the building." Crow Recycling is a registered charity providing volunteer work placements for disabled people. Crow does this by providing a commercial service destroying confidential waste, processing non confidential paper for recycling, crushing and baling aluminium cans for recycling and selling animal bedding. Crow also runs a Scrapstore selling reused items to use for arts and crafts and processes used books. Crow Recycling is funded by income from commercial services along with grants and donations such as the grant from Screwfix.