Spend a day on the land with your hands in the soil and your ears to the sounds of the birds and the bees. You'll meet some lovely people and learn new skills all at the same time.
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A day out with The Land Army is a great way to get your hands dirty, learn a bit about commercial food growing, and meet like-minded and interesting people. It can be quite a physical day's work, but we'll look after you and make sure you get lots of breaks.
The Land Army was inspired by the women’s Land Armies of the First and Second World War's, and aims to help small-scale organic growers in Greater Manchester increase their yields and strengthen their businesses. Over the years we've been running Land Army sessions, we've supported new organic growers at the beginning of their journey in establishing viable and productive farms.
During the pandemic we were restricted about what we could do with these sessions, and where we could take people. Because of this, for the past two years we've only been able to run regular volunteer sessions at our main horticulture site in Stockport, Woodbank Community Food Hub. But this hasn't stopped us ensuring that you get the most out of the sessions - we now run short talks and presentations on different aspects of running a commercial growing site after each volunteer session, so you get to learn loads while doing hands on work. And we're still working on bringing back the regular Land Army sessions where we take you out to a local farm to help on site - watch this space for more information soon.
Our lovely volunteers come from all walks of life and enjoy being part of our team of volunteers for many different reasons. You might be thinking about growing your own food at home or on an allotment, want to meet like-minded people, or simply have some spare time on your hands and fancy doing something totally different. Whatever the reason we'd love to hear from you!
If you fancy coming and helping us out at Woodbank, make sure you come prepared. You’ll need waterproofs (both jacket and trousers), sturdy footwear such as wellies or boots, and drinking water. It’s a good idea to wear clothes you don’t mind getting a bit mucky! In return for your hard work, we provide plenty of tea and biscuits and the afternoon presentation which changes topics each time.
We are committed to making our volunteering sessions accessible to all and our growing site in Stockport is wheelchair friendly. If you have any concerns or queries around access please do get in touch.
You can join our mailing list by completing the form below to receive regular updates about our upcoming sessions, or head to our events page to register!
A day out on the land can be so satisfying and enjoyable, but don't just take our word for it.
Here's a lovely post by Sokhema Nara (Development Studies student and Project Officer at Transparency International Cambodia) on her experience with the Land Army. Thanks to Sokhema for letting us share it.
"Volunteering with the Land Army and FarmStart trainees... was an awesome experience! We got to learn about sustainable food and organic farming in the UK. I like the concept of FarmStart as it gives new growers the opportunity to pilot their farming work while reducing the risk, which can help young entrepreneurs kick start their farming businesses. It was a day well spent! Surprisingly, all the volunteers were girls! We had an exhausting, but educational and fun time figuring out how to build the saw table from scratch, cutting woods, putting up a fence, making signs for selling veggies and getting to know new friends. Looking forward to the next exciting volunteer journey!"