From time to time, Cherwell Collective checks in with our volunteers, donors, and programme users to learn more about them and how our services have affected their lives.  Today, we share several Cherwell Collective impact stories of people deeply engaged with our programmes and community.

Emma and Tom Exemplify ‘Neighbour Helping Neighbour’

Emma and Tom exemplify the engagement between individual community members and Cherwell Collective. The two have used some of Cherwell Collective’s programmes, and lately, they have donated food and other goods to help sustain our mission.  We spoke with Emma to learn more.

Emma and Tom grow fruits and vegetables and often find their garden haul is more than they can consume themselves. Whatever they don’t need, they bring to Cherwell Larder, a Cherwell Collective programme that collects food surplus and distributes it to reduce food waste and fight  food poverty.  

“I’ve brought in apples and any excess vegetables that we’ve got. It’s a way of sharing when you’ve got excess,” Emma told us.

By donating their surplus food resources, Emma and Tom help feed the community while also reducing food waste. Reducing food waste helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change. According to United Nations estimates, 8-10% of all greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to food loss and food waste.

This photo depicts Emma, one of our volunteers.
Emma is a regular programme participant and volunteer with Cherwell Collective, seen here at Exeter Hall in Kidlington.

What started with their garden bounty eventually expanded to donating other items to Cherwell Larder’s Marketplace. The Marketplace collects unwanted non-food items to extend their utility and fulfill the principles of a circular economy.

“We’ve got stuff from the village that no one wanted and brought it here,” Emma explained. “ It helps them, and it helps us not having to throw something out.  It makes sure it gets to someone who needs it.”  

Emma also sometimes finds something at the marketplace that she takes home, giving it an extended life.

“It’s nice to see that you can pick up things that someone else has found an end of life to, and I can give life to.”

A Relationship Emerging in a Time of Need

Tom and Emma’s involvement with Cherwell Collective did not start as donors but rather during a time of need.  During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, Tom had lost his job. 

“When we started coming here, it was a must,” said Emma.  “We were struggling.”

During that time, the pair accessed food from Cherwell Larder, and later Emma began to take food and other items to people in her own village from the Larder, multiplying the community impact.  

“I’d walk around the village, donating them to people that were in need…Mostly elderly people who couldn’t get out or who were restricted by movement.”

As both users and donors to our services, Emma and Tom have become increasingly conscious of food waste.

“We’ve become more conscientious about what we use foodwise and making sure we use it all,” Emma said. “If I make a meal, we will eat it over two days. We home compost so that all goes back into the soil.”

Composting food waste helps cut methane emissions, an extremely potent greenhouse gas.

For Emma, participation with Cherwell Collective also offers a respite from her duties as a caregiver to her sister. 

“It’s nice to connect with other people, because being a caregiver is isolating,” Emma explained.

Through their donations and ongoing participation in our events, Emma and Tom represent a central ethos of Cherwell Collective: “neighbour helping neighbour.”

Young Family of Hayley and Josh Pay It Forward

Like Emma and Tom, Josh, Hayley, and their young family have made a journey that started as users of Cherwell Larder’s food donations but later evolved into something more. 

The young family appreciated the support they received from the Larder when they were starting out, during their time living in Bicester. 

“We got food from the Larder, quite a few meals a week,” Josh said.

Meanwhile, the kids had fun taking part in activity days: “We went to the Pumpkin carving. We went along to the activities with Oxford United,” Josh explained.

This photo shows Josh, an adult, and his child standing in a garden area during winter.
Josh and his child are seen here at a local garden plot.

Participating with Harvest @ Home

Later, after moving to Banbury, the family became regular volunteers at the community garden there through Cherwell Collective’s Harvest @ Home programme.  They have enjoyed learning about growing fruit and vegetables and now have a thriving veg patch at home. 

“Tomatoes are coming through really big. Beans are coming through now,” Josh told us last summer.  “We’ve noticed that the stuff we grow tastes a lot fresher than the stuff you buy in the shops and we’re really pleased that we’re growing things ourselves. It’s cheaper as well.”

A key benefit of participating in a circular economy and growing your own food is that it can reduce living expenses, especially during times of high consumer inflation.  

Relations between Cherwell Collective and programme participants also often take on an informal element that goes beyond the scope of our specific programmes. The family has found that our coordinator in Banbury is a source of ongoing advice and moral support.

“If we need advice with something, if one of the kids is doing poorly, she’s there. She’s helped me with my college course. We can’t thank her enough.”

Susan Discovers That What’s Old Is New Again for a Sustainable Future

For Susan, battling depression has been a lifelong constant. She has provided relief over the years by participating in community groups where she can connect with others.  However, that all became a new challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the groups Susan frequented shut down during that period, never to return. 

“There was nothing here at all. Dead. Then, slowly, it started to come back together because [Cherwell Collective founder] Emily’s got the Lunch Club, which is a big help,” said Susan, referring to the weekly meals hosted by Cherwell Collective’s Climatarian Kitchen programme.

Climatarian Kitchen serves three meals per week in Kidlington, using a pay-what-you-can model.  Suggested prices are based on the Carbon Cost of each food item served, which helps educate participants on the climate effects of their food choices.

For Susan and others like her, Climatarian Kitchen provides social support and friendship. Susan’s participation at our lunches, as well as participating in various WISH events, has led to Susan’s improved well-being.

A woman named Susan is shown sitting in a large community hall. She is holding her self-published book of poems and illustrations.
Susan, seen here at Exeter Hall in Kidlington, shows Cherwell Collective her collection of poems and illustrations.

Susan elaborated, “I have changed. I’ve definitely got a lot calmer, more stable. I think that’s because of the [Climatarian] cafe.”

What has worked for Susan, she believes, is also working for others: providing mutual support without judgement.

“It’s very helpful for people who’ve got depression. They can just come and sit with us, and we share. We just let them sit there, or we talk to them.”

A Longtime Focus on the Environment

Susan has always loved nature and wildlife. She thinks the answers to environmental issues can be found by relearning ways of doing things from the past. That includes a habit of repairing items when they become broken or worn out, rather than simply throwing them away and buying a new one.  The supply lines that go into manufacturing new goods are the single most significant cause of greenhouse gas emissions, so prolonging the life of goods helps forestall climate change.

Through activities at WISH, Susan has been learning new skills to help reduce waste and prolong the life of items like her clothing. At one of the repair cafes hosted at WISH, Susan learned from one of our volunteers to master the easy stitch, also known as the running stitch. Bringing back these “old-fashioned” home economics skills is a model that can serve everyone in making a more robust circular economy. 

Susan offered her own analysis: “It’s a good thing … the idea to pass on to the younger ones before the skills get lost … It’s not that they’re not interested, but they don’t know how to do it, and they’re embarrassed to ask.”

Susan sees the interest among younger community members in learning some of these timeless skills.  “I think the younger ones would really like that. I was sitting there, and this little girl came along, and she wanted to knit. So the interest was there.”

Susan has long had her eye on the younger generations and what world we will leave for them. In 2003, Susan wrote and illustrated a poem in which she questioned “Do We Care?” about the environment.  In a couple of stanzas from that poem, she wondered:

I ask myself will children

see rivers, streams, sea,

and ponds bright and clear?

Streets clean, wildlife playing 

in the sun?

Or will it be an oil slick

and rubbish rotting on the ground?

Do we care?

I ask myself will children smell

sweet flowers or summer air?

Roses, lavender and many more

Or will they only smell

rotting things upon the

summer air? 

Do we care?

Through the programmes of Cherwell Collective, Susan is embedding herself in a community that does care and is actively taking part in preserving our world for the next generation.

About Cherwell Collective Impact Evaluations

What is the impact of our work, and how can we best achieve community resilience?

Cherwell Collective conducts ongoing evaluations of the impact of our work through a team at our WISH programme. We want to ensure that our efforts to support the community and promote a circular economy are as effective as possible.  We want the generous support of our donors to reach its fullest potential. 

Through surveys, extensive one-on-one interviews, and the ongoing feedback of our volunteers, programme users, and civic partners, we constantly learn about the community’s needs and adjust our programmes to optimise our services and best fulfill our mission.

The vignettes shared in today’s blog post come from the ongoing evaluation work conducted by the WISH evaluation team.