JAGUAR LAND ROVER ALLOTMENT DECLARED GOOD TO GROW!

15 May 2019

Green fingered Jaguar Land Rover employees can swap the production line for the vegetable patch following the official opening of the company’s first community allotment.

  • Jaguar Land Rover officially opens its first community allotment with help from Gro-Organic
  • The plot, close to the Solihull manufacturing plant, will be transformed into a flourishing fruit and vegetable allotment by Jaguar Land Rover employees
  • All produce will be donated to people living in food poverty across Birmingham and Solihull
  • In its first full harvest, the allotment will provide 400 meals
  • Allotment will also support a new work experience programme for 16-24 years olds to gain a qualification in horticulture and landscaping

WEDNESDAY 15TH MAY, SOLIHULL: Green fingered Jaguar Land Rover employees can swap the production line for the vegetable patch following the official opening of the company’s first community allotment.

The allotment, created on waste ground, is the latest large-scale community project supported by Jaguar Land Rover’s Solihull manufacturing plant. The scheme aims to provide fresh produce to people in and around Solihull and Birmingham who live in food poverty. It builds on the plant’s existing relationship with Gro Organic an organisation dedicated to creating green spaces while providing social and economic opportunities for some of the most disadvantaged people in the region.

I was saddened to read that 100,000 children in Birmingham live in food poverty*, so when the opportunity came to expand our partnership with Gro-Organic and create a community allotment, I knew the whole team would want to support it.

Employee volunteering is really important to Jaguar Land Rover and this project provides an ideal opportunity to support the education, health and wellbeing of our workforce while providing enough fresh, seasonal produce for 400 meals in its first year.

Dave Owen
Operations Director at Jaguar Land Rover Solihull

A team of volunteers overhauled the plot last winter, clearing years of overgrowth, erecting a polytunnel, and building raised beds to prepare for its first full year of growing. With the expert advice from Gro-Organic and funding from Jaguar Land Rover’s Social Impact Fund, the allotment will grow everything from runner beans to raspberries, making up seasonal food boxes for families across the region. Advice and recipes will accompany the food boxes depending on the harvest and a hand built earth oven on the plot will also allow beneficiaries to enjoy their crop as soon as it is picked.

The produce will be distributed via various food bank initiatives including the Real Junk Food Project, Free Food Friday and the newly launched Incredible Edible Network in Solihull.

Jaguar Land Rover has worked tirelessly over the last four years to support Gro-Organic and the communities we serve, including a vehicle and trailer donation in 2017. Since then we’ve been oversubscribed with families needing our support and finding plots of land to obtain the yields we need to support these communities can be difficult.

Jaguar Land Rover assisted to negotiate terms for a significant plot of land that will produce high food yields and provide opportunities for local vulnerable people to develop skills in food growing while also donating their time to help us design, plan, develop and maintain a space for a sustainable community food project with the potential to reach all corners of the borough.

Sarah Gill
CEO of Gro-Organic
Scarecrows take shape
Scarecrows take shape
JLR allotment will provide fresh produce to the local community
JLR allotment will provide fresh produce to the local community
Jaguar Land Rover volunteers
Jaguar Land Rover volunteers

In addition to providing food to the local community and wellbeing and education opportunities to the Solihull workforce, Jaguar Land Rover’s allotment will also support a new ‘Moat-ivation’ work experience programme for 16 to 24-year-olds which improves employability prospects and allows participants to gain a qualification in horticulture and landscaping.

This project is just one of Jaguar Land Rover’s many small and large scale community initiatives around the world being delivered as part of its ongoing Responsible Business programme. Central to delivery are employee volunteers who can take two days every year to give back to their communities. Last year more than 70,000 volunteering hours were dedicated to global projects.

*Source: The Birmingham Child Poverty Commission report.

ENDS

Further information

For more information please contact
Laura Belnavis, Senior Communications Officer
Jaguar Land Rover Solihull
lbelnavi@jaguarlandrover.com
07392 103506

Notes to Editors

About Jaguar Land Rover
Jaguar Land Rover is the UK’s largest automotive manufacturer, built around two iconic British car brands: Land Rover, the world’s leading manufacturer of premium all-wheel-drive vehicles; and Jaguar, one of the world’s premier luxury sports saloon and sports car marques.

At Jaguar Land Rover, we are driven by a desire to deliver class-leading vehicles, which will provide experiences our customers will love, for life. Our products are in demand around the globe. In 2018 Jaguar Land Rover sold 592,708 vehicles in 128 countries.

We support around 260,000 people through our retailer network, suppliers and local businesses. At heart we are a British company, with two major design and engineering sites, three vehicle manufacturing facilities and an engine manufacturing centre in the UK. We also have plants in China, Brazil, India, Austria and Slovakia.

From 2020 all new Jaguar Land Rover vehicles will offer the option of electrification, giving our customers even more choice. We will introduce a portfolio of electrified products across our model range, embracing fully electric, plug-in hybrid and mild hybrid vehicles as well as continuing to offer the latest diesel and petrol engines.

About Gro-Organic
We are a local organisation based in the West Midlands, built with a team of driven people who are passionate about creating wonderful green spaces whilst investing in local people and our community.

We Reinvest
When clients choose us they are also providing social and economic opportunities for some of the most disadvantaged people living in and around Solihull & Birmingham. To reflect our social mission we are constituted as a Community Interest Company. This means that all of our profits are re-invested into people and places, creating better prospects for local residents and making redundant land into valuable community assets.

Help the Community
Our social return on investment is a ratio of 1:5 which means for every pound that you spend with us we deliver £5 worth of social value. So, whether you choose us to design and build your garden at home, to create an outstanding outdoor space at your school, or work in the heart of your community, we have experienced and qualified teams who are experts in their assigned fields.