Abundance Wimbledon Newsletter
21 October 2020
Welcome to Abundance Wimbledon - 21 October 2020
This will be our final newsletter for 2020 - and is packed full of features about our very successful (and Covid-safe) Fruit Day!
Make yourself a hot cuppa and enjoy this extended newsletter with all the updates!
For the full gallery of photos - please click this link
Fruit Day Wrap - 19 September 2020
The Abundance Wimbledon Fruit Day was an outstanding success for us again this year! Despite picking less fruit this year, we exceeded our own expectations, raising more than £1,800 - just over £200 less than 2019!
Our sincere thanks go to Merton Mayor, Cr Sally Kelly (pictured above) who continued a long tradition of Merton Mayors - started by our own Gilli Lewis-Lavender when she was Mayor - and opened the day for us at 11am. Her team delighted us with their enthusiasm, filling their baskets with many jars of our local produce, topped up with cakes and bakes! Thank you for your support - we were delighted to be your first official engagement as Mayor.
We must also mention Stephen Hammond MP (and his lovely wife Sally) who are regulars to our Fruit Day events each year, as well as a number of Merton Councillors who always take time out of their schedules to join us. Thankyou all. We appreciate your support.
We are now in the process of sorting out which charities will be our recipients this year (once expenses are taken out), although we have already donated an additional £200 to St Mark's Church as a thank you for their ongoing support for Fruit Day.
Further plans include the purchase of a couple of Merton variety apple trees so if your school or allotment are interested in these trees, please let us know and we can allocate them in the community.
This newsletter will be filled with thank yous as community groups such as Abundance Wimbledon rely on a large amount of volunteer effort each year. In our 10th year this year, we are delighted to say that our volunteer base has grown and it was wonderful to welcome so many new faces in 2020. New faces also include new local causes who have been the recipients of our picked fruit - 27%+ of all fruit picked goes directly to charities for distribution or making into cakes, bakes and crumbles for their local clients.
Other innovations this year included Juliet's first ever web chat with Sustainable Merton, welcoming the Mask Tree - a great addition and very handy, payment via credit card (sincere thanks to Love Wimbledon for the use of the contactless machines), shopping baskets (thanks to Morrisons Wimbledon who allowed us to borrow some of theirs) and of course our Covid-19 QR Code. We are delighted that our plans to have a Covid-Safe event worked as we are now past the 21 day notification period and we have not had to notify anyone of an outbreak via our event.
There are many people who helped us out at Fruit Day - just some of those include: Juilet, John, Hugo, Diane, Caroline, Sarah, Joan, Laura, Christine, Hector, Chris, Kate, Gareth, Conor, Steve, Amanda, Martin, Steve, Gavin, Jane, Judith, Alexandra, Marianna, Maria, Kevin, Keith, Alison, Cherry, John, Amanda, Sarah, Christine, Andrea, Shirley, Caroline, Ruth, Melanie, Ewa, Motoko, Paul, Mark, Carole, Carol, Barbara, Alyson, Jane, Helen, Penny, Gilli, Barbara, Sally, Karoline, Bryony, Liz. Sue, David, Alison, Rosie and many more. Thank you one and all!
Jams, Jellies, Chutney and Cordials Update
Our Stall Coordinator, Sue had a hectic year this year with an abundance of our usual jams, jellies and chutneys - to which we added cordials as a new product. All produce was fresh and inviting and this resulted in £1,000 raised through the sales of jams, jellies, chutneys and cordials alone, Sue and her team's continued efforts and success are the back bone of our Fruit Day. We have received great feedback on how scrumptious everything was!
Thank you to Sue's team: Sue, Di, Bryony, Juliet, Robin, Ruth, Jil, Susanna, Christine, Lesley, Liz, Rosie, Maggie C, Maggie vdP, Nicola, Jocelyn, Mary-Jane, Barbara and Maggie D. Sincere thanks and apologies to anyone who we may have missed on this list.
Fresh Apple Juice sold out fastest!
When you have juiced enough apples to make more than 80 litres of fresh apple juice - and have run out of both apples and juice by 12 noon (leaving many disappointed customers - sorry!) you know that this most popular of stalls has had a great day. Sincere thanks to Juliet for again being in charge of the stall and her team of excellent helpers who juiced the apples more than once in an effort to extract as much juice as possible. An outstanding effort.
Sincere thanks to the people who delivered local apples to us on the day - we couldn't have made as much juice as we did without your donations!
Cake and Pie Bake Stall - yummy goods for all
Another sell out for 2020 was out Cake and Pie Bake Stall. Anchored by Rosie and her team of helpers, this years stall was better than ever, making almost £560 in total (£450 cakes, £118 Pies)! Liz and Barbara's pies were flying out the door and with a range of prices to suit any budget, our local volunteer bakers did us proud! Rosie would like to pass on her sincere thanks to all those who donated cakes, biscuits, bakes, pies and crumbles for the stall which made it such an outstanding success this year: Rosie, Dulcie, Ruth, Maggie, Fatima, Ann, Carolyn, Jil, Irene and Sally. Sincere apologies if we have missed anyone, but please know that we are so very thankful for your efforts in making our Cake and Pie Bake Stall our best ever!
Local Honey flew out the door!
Local Bee Keepers Alison (Merton) and David (Tooting) had a sell out this year! All their honey products (jarred honey, lip balm and candles) were sold at Fruit Day, so there is nothing on the horizon for their local honey until 2021. We love having Alison and David join us at Fruit Day each year as there is nothing better than being able to buy local honey from local beekeepers. Thanks for your contribution to our income (10% of all honey sales comes direct back to Abundance Wimbledon for distribution to local charities).
Kids Activities - fun for our young ones
Karoline and Hugo spent hours this year creating activities for all the children who came to Fruit Day. It was a great initiative - and who knew how much can be done with a humble toilet roll (let alone that not all toilet rolls are created equial! Sincere thanks to all involved on this stall - another great Fruit Day feature.
Growing plants for Fruit Day
Many of our volunteers not only pick fruit, make jams and chutneys and/or drive around dropping off donations, but also make plants for our plant stall! This year we received another great crop of plants for sale and we thank all who donated to the stall. Sterling effort in particular to Charles who organised our stall.
Thanks Alice! Songs on Wheels
Thanks to Alice! Songs on Wheels who performed at Fruit Day. Alice and her four singers (and accompanyist on keyboard) treated us to a great range of songs from all eras and kept us tapping our toes during their set later in the day. This group regularly performs locally and came well recommended to us and we really appreciated them joining us with little notice. Thanks again!
Sustainable Merton - thanks for joining us!
Sustainable Merton have become a real fixture at our Fruit Day each year and we really enjoy hosting them at our annual Fruit Day. Did you see the Loving Earth project by Linda Murgatroyd - a great display! We are like minded groups in that we are both all about reducing waste and living in a sustainable way. The tips and insights provided by our Sustainable Merton friends are always invaluable and we love it that they take the time and effort to bring their stall and expertise each year. Thankyou.
Community Mask Tree - something new for 2020
2020 has certainly been an interesting year and if you told us at our 2019 Fruit Day that we would be hosting a Community Mask tree in 2020, I am not sure we would have believed you! Having said that, when we at Abundance Wimbledon heard about Syebvonne's project (initially supplying masks for the NHS but soon expanded into the local community), we thought it would be a great addition for our Fruit Day - and it was! The idea is that you can grab a mask and all they ask is that you donate £2 to cover materials. We love this new friendship that we have formed with Syebvonne and if you see their mask trees in the community, do yourself a favour and grab one of their beautiful masks!
Our Harvest Statistics
1243 Kgs Apples
287 Kgs Pears
23 Kgs Plums
20 Kgs Quinces
13 Kgs Blackberries
11 Kgs Crab Apples
8 Kgs Cherries
4.5 Kgs Strawberries
3 Kgs Gooseberries
0.5 Kgs Sloe Berries
An incredible total of 1,613 Kgs of saved fruit in 2020!
This is especially pleasing as we were significantly down on Plums this year - in 2019 we picked over 200kgs of plums so if we take that into consideration, our harvest for 2020 was equal to that of 2019 - particularly impressive in these Covid times where a number of our regular donors were unable to give us fruit as to pick it we may have breached the lockdown rules.
The following organisations received donations of fruit from us this year:
We have given 442.5 kgs (27%+ of all fruit picked!) to local good causes
95.5 kgs to Commonside Community Trust
49.5 kgs to Friends in St Helier
47 kgs to Regenerate Barnes
44 kgs to The May Garden Project
40 kgs to St Teresa’s Home for the Elderly
34 kgs to Wimbledon YMCA
23.5 kgs to Merton and Morden Guild
22 kgs to Labour Party Food Bank
18 kgs to Dons Local Action Group
15 kgs to Dundonald Brownies
10 kgs to Trussell Trust Food Bank
10 kgs to Street Kitchen
10 kgs to Winterdown Livery
10 kgs to Barnfield Riding for the Disabled
9 kgs to Oak Tree Nursery
5 kgs to Lee House
The rest was distributed to anyone who could use it (including to friends in the local community) – and turned into jams, jellies, pies, crumbles etc. or just eaten!
Thank you Penny
Penny Fletcher (pictured above with Juliet) has been with Abundance Wimbledon for a number of years now, but with a recent move, Penny will be passing the baton to Bryony. Penny has been instrumental in the administration and set up of the actual Fruit Day - everything from mapping out the stalls, coordinating the stall holders, filling in all the insurance and indemnity forms, undertaking the risk management strategy development and implementation and all round organiser on the day. We will miss you Penny and sincerely thank you for all your hard work and dedication to our Abundance Wimbledon activities.
Thank you Paul and Mark (Paul Gapper Photography)
For the last number of years we have been very lucky to have Bryony's neighbours Paul and Mark come and take photos on Fruit Day. All of the photos you see here have been taken by Paul and Mark - and always with a smile! The photos taken each year are not only used extensively for our social media campaigns but are a great pictorial record of our event each year. So thank you Paul and Mark - we love your work and appreciate all you do for us.
Credits for photos: Paul Gapper Photography
Our Fruit Donors are at the heart of everything we do
The photo above shows you the dedicated team who prepare the apples for pressing on Fruit Day. However, none of this would be possible without our incredible donors - this year more donors than ever. It was a tough call deciding whether we could still go ahead with our activities with the restrictions in London due to Covid-19. Questions like whether we could pick fruit safely, what risks were there with entering people's gardens (particularly if we had to go through homes to get to the back garden), would people still be willing to donate? Sure, there were significantly less plums this year, but this year, we also had a wider range of fruits donated which meant that our Fruit Day produce had great variety. We have welcomed many new donors this year and we look forward to working with them again in 2021. Thank you to all our donors who include: Alison, Chris, Claudia, Emma, Nisha, Julie, Ron, June, Carmel, Martin Way Allotments, Bob, Bronwen, Anne, An, Mavis, Greg, :Leila, Sally, Gabrielle & family, Trina, Margaret, Richard, Helen, Adam, Nicola, Matt, Leyann, Tomas, Aziza, Carol, Christine, Carol, Carole, Juliet, Heather Rana. If I have missed your name - apologies and sincere thanks!
Our Pickers have worked hard this year
Our pickers travel to all corners of Merton and beyond to collect fruit from our donors that would otherwise be wasted. This year, the teams have faced the Covid-19 challenges with aplomb and been truly dedicated - remember when Liz and Joan were picking in the heat?
The reason that we had so much produce to redistribute is down to the hard work of all our pickers who not only pick the fruit but deliver it to either the charities (mentioned above) or to our jam, jelly, chutney and cordial makers. Thank you for all you have done this season: Alison, Juliet, Karoline, Hugo, Barbara, Chris, Adam, Liz, Mary-Jane, Gilli, Brian, Cherry, Julie, Jane, James, Edward, Motoko, Joan, Bryony, Melanie, Gabriel, Helen, Joan, Jane, Carole, Barbara, Sarah, Carol, Russell, Cat, Christine, Jane, Maggie, Katie. Hope I have mentioned everyone - if not, please accept our thanks.
Strength in Numbers - thanks to all who support us
A big thank you to groups helping - by publicising Abundance Wimbledon to their networks, on a website or newsletter or some other way
LOVE WIMBLEDON – for helpful advice, particularly in relation to meeting Covid-19 safe requirements, use of their contactless card machines and ongoing encouragement and reassurance that it was safe to hold our Fruit Day 2020. Special mention to Helen - thankyou.
MERTON COUNCIL - for helpful advice, particularly in relation to meeting Covid-19 safe requirements.
SUSTAINABLE MERTON – for helping in many ways throughout the project.
ST MARK’S CHURCH – for letting us use their lovely garden and hall and support in many other ways.
Our social media presence continues to grow
This year, we welcomed many new members to the Abundance Wimbledon network. We are delighted that our social media presence continues to expand and this means that more and more people are not just learning about Abundance Wimbledon, but we have welcomed many new donors, pickers and volunteers. Below is an insight into what our social media profile has achieved:
Abundance Wimbledon Newsletter
And last but not least, thanks to our Committee
This year has been a challenge, not least because of the current environment, the lockdown and of course the fact that many of our Committee members have been self isolating. We have found new ways to do things - from webchats and Zoom meetings to credit card payments, QR Codes and of course crowd social distancing measures. They say that there is no "I" in team and that was particularly evident this year when all the Committee just got on with the job despite all these changes and challenges. Therefore, our sincere thanks must go to Juliet (our Chair), Bryony (Secretary), Gilli, Sue, Alison, Jane, Liz, Penny, Rosemary, Karoline, Alyson, Barbara V, Barbara G, Carole, Cherry, Helina and Sally,
The strength of the team is each individual member.
The strength of each member is the team.
Phil Jackson
Our next newsletter
Our 2020 Season is now finished and we will be back in touch in May 2021.
Feel free to send any news to our editor - Sally at [email protected].
** To get in touch about any of the above, please just reply to this email **
Best wishes and sincere thanks from us all
Juliet and the team at Abundance Wimbledon
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This will be our final newsletter for 2020 - and is packed full of features about our very successful (and Covid-safe) Fruit Day!
Make yourself a hot cuppa and enjoy this extended newsletter with all the updates!
For the full gallery of photos - please click this link
- Fruit Day Wrap - 19 September 2020
- Jams, Jellies, Chutney and Cordials Update
- Fresh Apple Juice sold out fastest!
- Cake and Pie Bake Stall - yummy goods for all
- Local Honey flew out the door!
- Kids Activities - fun for our young ones
- Growing plants for Fruit Day
- Thanks Alice! Songs on Wheels
- Sustainable Merton - thanks for joining us!
- Community Mask Tree - something new for 2020
- Our Harvest Statistics
- The following organisations received donations of fruit from us this year:
- Thank you Penny
- Thank you Paul and Mark (Paul Gapper Photography)
- Our Fruit Donors are at the heart of everything we do
- Our Pickers have worked hard this year
- Strength in Numbers - thanks to all who support us
- Our social media presence continues to grow
- And last but not least, thanks to our Committee
- Our next newsletter
Fruit Day Wrap - 19 September 2020
The Abundance Wimbledon Fruit Day was an outstanding success for us again this year! Despite picking less fruit this year, we exceeded our own expectations, raising more than £1,800 - just over £200 less than 2019!
Our sincere thanks go to Merton Mayor, Cr Sally Kelly (pictured above) who continued a long tradition of Merton Mayors - started by our own Gilli Lewis-Lavender when she was Mayor - and opened the day for us at 11am. Her team delighted us with their enthusiasm, filling their baskets with many jars of our local produce, topped up with cakes and bakes! Thank you for your support - we were delighted to be your first official engagement as Mayor.
We must also mention Stephen Hammond MP (and his lovely wife Sally) who are regulars to our Fruit Day events each year, as well as a number of Merton Councillors who always take time out of their schedules to join us. Thankyou all. We appreciate your support.
We are now in the process of sorting out which charities will be our recipients this year (once expenses are taken out), although we have already donated an additional £200 to St Mark's Church as a thank you for their ongoing support for Fruit Day.
Further plans include the purchase of a couple of Merton variety apple trees so if your school or allotment are interested in these trees, please let us know and we can allocate them in the community.
This newsletter will be filled with thank yous as community groups such as Abundance Wimbledon rely on a large amount of volunteer effort each year. In our 10th year this year, we are delighted to say that our volunteer base has grown and it was wonderful to welcome so many new faces in 2020. New faces also include new local causes who have been the recipients of our picked fruit - 27%+ of all fruit picked goes directly to charities for distribution or making into cakes, bakes and crumbles for their local clients.
Other innovations this year included Juliet's first ever web chat with Sustainable Merton, welcoming the Mask Tree - a great addition and very handy, payment via credit card (sincere thanks to Love Wimbledon for the use of the contactless machines), shopping baskets (thanks to Morrisons Wimbledon who allowed us to borrow some of theirs) and of course our Covid-19 QR Code. We are delighted that our plans to have a Covid-Safe event worked as we are now past the 21 day notification period and we have not had to notify anyone of an outbreak via our event.
There are many people who helped us out at Fruit Day - just some of those include: Juilet, John, Hugo, Diane, Caroline, Sarah, Joan, Laura, Christine, Hector, Chris, Kate, Gareth, Conor, Steve, Amanda, Martin, Steve, Gavin, Jane, Judith, Alexandra, Marianna, Maria, Kevin, Keith, Alison, Cherry, John, Amanda, Sarah, Christine, Andrea, Shirley, Caroline, Ruth, Melanie, Ewa, Motoko, Paul, Mark, Carole, Carol, Barbara, Alyson, Jane, Helen, Penny, Gilli, Barbara, Sally, Karoline, Bryony, Liz. Sue, David, Alison, Rosie and many more. Thank you one and all!
Jams, Jellies, Chutney and Cordials Update
Our Stall Coordinator, Sue had a hectic year this year with an abundance of our usual jams, jellies and chutneys - to which we added cordials as a new product. All produce was fresh and inviting and this resulted in £1,000 raised through the sales of jams, jellies, chutneys and cordials alone, Sue and her team's continued efforts and success are the back bone of our Fruit Day. We have received great feedback on how scrumptious everything was!
Thank you to Sue's team: Sue, Di, Bryony, Juliet, Robin, Ruth, Jil, Susanna, Christine, Lesley, Liz, Rosie, Maggie C, Maggie vdP, Nicola, Jocelyn, Mary-Jane, Barbara and Maggie D. Sincere thanks and apologies to anyone who we may have missed on this list.
Fresh Apple Juice sold out fastest!
When you have juiced enough apples to make more than 80 litres of fresh apple juice - and have run out of both apples and juice by 12 noon (leaving many disappointed customers - sorry!) you know that this most popular of stalls has had a great day. Sincere thanks to Juliet for again being in charge of the stall and her team of excellent helpers who juiced the apples more than once in an effort to extract as much juice as possible. An outstanding effort.
Sincere thanks to the people who delivered local apples to us on the day - we couldn't have made as much juice as we did without your donations!
Cake and Pie Bake Stall - yummy goods for all
Another sell out for 2020 was out Cake and Pie Bake Stall. Anchored by Rosie and her team of helpers, this years stall was better than ever, making almost £560 in total (£450 cakes, £118 Pies)! Liz and Barbara's pies were flying out the door and with a range of prices to suit any budget, our local volunteer bakers did us proud! Rosie would like to pass on her sincere thanks to all those who donated cakes, biscuits, bakes, pies and crumbles for the stall which made it such an outstanding success this year: Rosie, Dulcie, Ruth, Maggie, Fatima, Ann, Carolyn, Jil, Irene and Sally. Sincere apologies if we have missed anyone, but please know that we are so very thankful for your efforts in making our Cake and Pie Bake Stall our best ever!
Local Honey flew out the door!
Local Bee Keepers Alison (Merton) and David (Tooting) had a sell out this year! All their honey products (jarred honey, lip balm and candles) were sold at Fruit Day, so there is nothing on the horizon for their local honey until 2021. We love having Alison and David join us at Fruit Day each year as there is nothing better than being able to buy local honey from local beekeepers. Thanks for your contribution to our income (10% of all honey sales comes direct back to Abundance Wimbledon for distribution to local charities).
Kids Activities - fun for our young ones
Karoline and Hugo spent hours this year creating activities for all the children who came to Fruit Day. It was a great initiative - and who knew how much can be done with a humble toilet roll (let alone that not all toilet rolls are created equial! Sincere thanks to all involved on this stall - another great Fruit Day feature.
Growing plants for Fruit Day
Many of our volunteers not only pick fruit, make jams and chutneys and/or drive around dropping off donations, but also make plants for our plant stall! This year we received another great crop of plants for sale and we thank all who donated to the stall. Sterling effort in particular to Charles who organised our stall.
Thanks Alice! Songs on Wheels
Thanks to Alice! Songs on Wheels who performed at Fruit Day. Alice and her four singers (and accompanyist on keyboard) treated us to a great range of songs from all eras and kept us tapping our toes during their set later in the day. This group regularly performs locally and came well recommended to us and we really appreciated them joining us with little notice. Thanks again!
Sustainable Merton - thanks for joining us!
Sustainable Merton have become a real fixture at our Fruit Day each year and we really enjoy hosting them at our annual Fruit Day. Did you see the Loving Earth project by Linda Murgatroyd - a great display! We are like minded groups in that we are both all about reducing waste and living in a sustainable way. The tips and insights provided by our Sustainable Merton friends are always invaluable and we love it that they take the time and effort to bring their stall and expertise each year. Thankyou.
Community Mask Tree - something new for 2020
2020 has certainly been an interesting year and if you told us at our 2019 Fruit Day that we would be hosting a Community Mask tree in 2020, I am not sure we would have believed you! Having said that, when we at Abundance Wimbledon heard about Syebvonne's project (initially supplying masks for the NHS but soon expanded into the local community), we thought it would be a great addition for our Fruit Day - and it was! The idea is that you can grab a mask and all they ask is that you donate £2 to cover materials. We love this new friendship that we have formed with Syebvonne and if you see their mask trees in the community, do yourself a favour and grab one of their beautiful masks!
Our Harvest Statistics
1243 Kgs Apples
287 Kgs Pears
23 Kgs Plums
20 Kgs Quinces
13 Kgs Blackberries
11 Kgs Crab Apples
8 Kgs Cherries
4.5 Kgs Strawberries
3 Kgs Gooseberries
0.5 Kgs Sloe Berries
An incredible total of 1,613 Kgs of saved fruit in 2020!
This is especially pleasing as we were significantly down on Plums this year - in 2019 we picked over 200kgs of plums so if we take that into consideration, our harvest for 2020 was equal to that of 2019 - particularly impressive in these Covid times where a number of our regular donors were unable to give us fruit as to pick it we may have breached the lockdown rules.
The following organisations received donations of fruit from us this year:
We have given 442.5 kgs (27%+ of all fruit picked!) to local good causes
95.5 kgs to Commonside Community Trust
49.5 kgs to Friends in St Helier
47 kgs to Regenerate Barnes
44 kgs to The May Garden Project
40 kgs to St Teresa’s Home for the Elderly
34 kgs to Wimbledon YMCA
23.5 kgs to Merton and Morden Guild
22 kgs to Labour Party Food Bank
18 kgs to Dons Local Action Group
15 kgs to Dundonald Brownies
10 kgs to Trussell Trust Food Bank
10 kgs to Street Kitchen
10 kgs to Winterdown Livery
10 kgs to Barnfield Riding for the Disabled
9 kgs to Oak Tree Nursery
5 kgs to Lee House
The rest was distributed to anyone who could use it (including to friends in the local community) – and turned into jams, jellies, pies, crumbles etc. or just eaten!
Thank you Penny
Penny Fletcher (pictured above with Juliet) has been with Abundance Wimbledon for a number of years now, but with a recent move, Penny will be passing the baton to Bryony. Penny has been instrumental in the administration and set up of the actual Fruit Day - everything from mapping out the stalls, coordinating the stall holders, filling in all the insurance and indemnity forms, undertaking the risk management strategy development and implementation and all round organiser on the day. We will miss you Penny and sincerely thank you for all your hard work and dedication to our Abundance Wimbledon activities.
Thank you Paul and Mark (Paul Gapper Photography)
For the last number of years we have been very lucky to have Bryony's neighbours Paul and Mark come and take photos on Fruit Day. All of the photos you see here have been taken by Paul and Mark - and always with a smile! The photos taken each year are not only used extensively for our social media campaigns but are a great pictorial record of our event each year. So thank you Paul and Mark - we love your work and appreciate all you do for us.
Credits for photos: Paul Gapper Photography
Our Fruit Donors are at the heart of everything we do
The photo above shows you the dedicated team who prepare the apples for pressing on Fruit Day. However, none of this would be possible without our incredible donors - this year more donors than ever. It was a tough call deciding whether we could still go ahead with our activities with the restrictions in London due to Covid-19. Questions like whether we could pick fruit safely, what risks were there with entering people's gardens (particularly if we had to go through homes to get to the back garden), would people still be willing to donate? Sure, there were significantly less plums this year, but this year, we also had a wider range of fruits donated which meant that our Fruit Day produce had great variety. We have welcomed many new donors this year and we look forward to working with them again in 2021. Thank you to all our donors who include: Alison, Chris, Claudia, Emma, Nisha, Julie, Ron, June, Carmel, Martin Way Allotments, Bob, Bronwen, Anne, An, Mavis, Greg, :Leila, Sally, Gabrielle & family, Trina, Margaret, Richard, Helen, Adam, Nicola, Matt, Leyann, Tomas, Aziza, Carol, Christine, Carol, Carole, Juliet, Heather Rana. If I have missed your name - apologies and sincere thanks!
Our Pickers have worked hard this year
Our pickers travel to all corners of Merton and beyond to collect fruit from our donors that would otherwise be wasted. This year, the teams have faced the Covid-19 challenges with aplomb and been truly dedicated - remember when Liz and Joan were picking in the heat?
The reason that we had so much produce to redistribute is down to the hard work of all our pickers who not only pick the fruit but deliver it to either the charities (mentioned above) or to our jam, jelly, chutney and cordial makers. Thank you for all you have done this season: Alison, Juliet, Karoline, Hugo, Barbara, Chris, Adam, Liz, Mary-Jane, Gilli, Brian, Cherry, Julie, Jane, James, Edward, Motoko, Joan, Bryony, Melanie, Gabriel, Helen, Joan, Jane, Carole, Barbara, Sarah, Carol, Russell, Cat, Christine, Jane, Maggie, Katie. Hope I have mentioned everyone - if not, please accept our thanks.
Strength in Numbers - thanks to all who support us
A big thank you to groups helping - by publicising Abundance Wimbledon to their networks, on a website or newsletter or some other way
- Christ Church (West Wimbledon)
- Colliers Wood Residents’ Association
- Dundonald Congregational Church
- Friends of Cannon Hill Common
- Green Coffee
- Haydons Road North Community Site
- John Innes Society Gardening Group
- Lady Wimbledon
- Love Wimbledon
- Martin Way Allotments
- Merton Council
- Merton Green Party
- Merton & Morden Guild
- Merton Park Ward Residents
- Merton Tree Wardens
- Merton Voluntary Services Council
- Raynes Park & West Barnes Residents' Association
- South Ridgway Residents Association
- St Mary's Church (Village)
- Sustainable Merton
- Time and Leisure Magazine
- Trinity United Reformed Church
- Union of Wimbledon Residents Associations
- Wandle Valley Forum
- West Barnes Library
- Wimbledon Community Organisation
- Wimbledon Congregational Church
- Wimbledon East Hillside Residents’ Association
- Wimbledon Guild
- Wimbledon Labour Party
- Wimbledon Liberal Party
- Wimbledon Conservatives
- Wimbledon Park Residents’ Association
- Wimbledonvillage.com
- Zero Waste SW London
LOVE WIMBLEDON – for helpful advice, particularly in relation to meeting Covid-19 safe requirements, use of their contactless card machines and ongoing encouragement and reassurance that it was safe to hold our Fruit Day 2020. Special mention to Helen - thankyou.
MERTON COUNCIL - for helpful advice, particularly in relation to meeting Covid-19 safe requirements.
SUSTAINABLE MERTON – for helping in many ways throughout the project.
ST MARK’S CHURCH – for letting us use their lovely garden and hall and support in many other ways.
Our social media presence continues to grow
This year, we welcomed many new members to the Abundance Wimbledon network. We are delighted that our social media presence continues to expand and this means that more and more people are not just learning about Abundance Wimbledon, but we have welcomed many new donors, pickers and volunteers. Below is an insight into what our social media profile has achieved:
Abundance Wimbledon Newsletter
- 368 people now receiving the Abundance Wimbledon newsletter
- 6 newsletters sent during the 2020 season
- 262 followers
- Over 30,000 impressions since our campaign started in June 2020
- 248 Page likes, 259 Page followers (100%+ increase from 2019)
- Top Post reached over 4,500 people
- Overall, our Posts have reached well in excess of 45,000 people this season
And last but not least, thanks to our Committee
This year has been a challenge, not least because of the current environment, the lockdown and of course the fact that many of our Committee members have been self isolating. We have found new ways to do things - from webchats and Zoom meetings to credit card payments, QR Codes and of course crowd social distancing measures. They say that there is no "I" in team and that was particularly evident this year when all the Committee just got on with the job despite all these changes and challenges. Therefore, our sincere thanks must go to Juliet (our Chair), Bryony (Secretary), Gilli, Sue, Alison, Jane, Liz, Penny, Rosemary, Karoline, Alyson, Barbara V, Barbara G, Carole, Cherry, Helina and Sally,
The strength of the team is each individual member.
The strength of each member is the team.
Phil Jackson
Our next newsletter
Our 2020 Season is now finished and we will be back in touch in May 2021.
Feel free to send any news to our editor - Sally at [email protected].
** To get in touch about any of the above, please just reply to this email **
Best wishes and sincere thanks from us all
Juliet and the team at Abundance Wimbledon
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