Brunswick Organic Nursery in Bishopthorpe is reaching out to the community to help support them through these difficult Covid times.
Through having to close much of the nursery during the pandemic, losing crucial income on seasonal plant sales, and being unable to host their important annual fundraisers, the charity – a safe, creative community where people with learning disabilities work – have found it very tough.
Many of the workers at Brunswick have been shielding or self isolating, with only a bare minimum of people being able to come on site and keep basic plant production going.
Their new campaign – Keep Brunswick Growing – has been launched to try and keep the nursery running and the incredible Brunswick community connected.
They are asking people to decorate a window in their house in flowers (real or crafted) showing their support of Brunswick.
There’s a pack you can download which includes a poster you can display, or a drawing you can colour in. They are encouraging everyone to get creative and make or draw their own flowers to join your window display.
And they will be be sharing some crafty ideas on how to make flowers from different materials on their social media channels.
Everything you need to know to download your pack, or to donate directly to their cause, is here.
Brunswick Shop is, however, open!
Brunswick tell me their shop has been ticking over the past three months initially delivering veg boxes, groceries, plants and compost and then they re-opened to the public four weeks ago.
For safety they have implemented a one way system and served customers from the shop door which is working really well and they have had a great response from their customers.
They are currently undergoing a shop re-fit so they can start allowing people safely back into the shop, which will allow them to offer more products for sale. They told us:
We are still open while the re-fit is happening so would definitely welcome more customers.
We are in a good position that we grow a lot of our plants and so less reliant on other growers and still have lots of lovely plants to offer.
While the shop remains open we are still closed to our workers. This is very difficult as it’s what Brunswick is all about.
The staff are working very hard to keep supporting them in any way we can with regular phone calls, dropping off craft and cooking packs for them to do to keep busy.
They are also working at getting the site ready for a phased return but at the moment do not know when that will be.
Anyone who would like to support Brunswick can contact the team on admin@brunswickyork.org.uk
