Operation Farm had a presence at the ‘Spring in to Spring’ event at Mossley Community Centre and got a great write up in the above newspaper clipping. Many thanks to all who attended!

Operation Farm are excited to announce that they will be taking part in Mossley Community Centre’s Spring into Spring Event.

The lottery funded event takes place on 13 April 1-4pm and aims to introduce local people to new & existing sports, health & well being activities at the centre.

Activities include dance, singing, gardening and sports.

The free, family friendly event will also showcase the centre as a great venue for party hire.

Operation Farm will be hosting a ‘planting in wellies’ workshop and therefore need lots of ‘old wellies’ !!

Mossley Community Centre, Roughtown Rd, Mossley, OL5 0SG. Telephone 01457 832361

Spring Event April 2013 – pdf

Apple_Day_Poster[1]

Upcoming Hyde Park Community Orchard Apple Day, funded with support of the Community Development Foundation and the Big Lottery Community Spaces Programme on Sunday 21st October 2012 – all welcome, bring a couple of apples of heritage varieties along to add to the table of lesser known apple varieties if you have any in your garden!

- Apple Pressing: please bring your surplus fruit for pressing
- Kids Apple Themed Arts & Crafts
- Family Entertainment
- Storytelling & Poetry
- Apple Tasting, Orchard & Beekeeping Information
- Swap Table: please bring your pies, preserves & puddings
- Home Bake Stall
- Longest Peel Competition
The Park Café will be open for drinks & snacks

Hyde Park Community Orchard, Hyde Park, Lodge Lane, Hyde, SK14 4JX Telephone 07834242398

Supporters group
Next meeting of orchard supporters group is 5-6pm, Weds 10th October at Hyde Park Cafe

Any further info re event contact Alison.shockledge@gmail.com or hydeparkorchard@gmail.com

We are really excited to take part in the Tameside Food, Drink, Health Well Being Festival 12-4pm, Saturday 29th September  2012 at New Charter Academy, Ashton, where we will be selling fresh, healthy, seasonal salads using local suppliers.

We will also be handing out information about our project. Operation Farm members & volunteers will be available to discuss our recent feasibility study funded by The Big Lottery. We look forward to seeing you there. For more info visit
http://www.mistrymarketingevents.co.uk/tfdf.php

Become a member
During our research and development work a number of people asked us how they could get involved in supporting Operation Farm. As a result we’re enabling people to join Operation Farm as a member with a “pay-what-you-can” membership fee system.

Becoming a member:

- keeps you up to date on our activities and work via e-newsletters
- ensures you receive invitations to events and training
- allows you to attend our AGM, vote on resolutions and board members and stand for the board yourself
- helps us demonstrate the support our project has to other organisations

We charge because a membership fee provides us with a small amount of unrestricted income for items such as insurances, memberships and ongoing publicity costs, we operate a “pay-what-you-can” policy in order to be as inclusive as possible and build a wide membership base.

Organisations can join and need to nominate a named individual to represent them.

If you would like to become an Operation Farm member send us an email (operationfarm@gmail.com) and we’ll send you a form and a link to a secure online payment site.

Operation Farm AGM & board election
Operation Farm has set a date for it’s next AGM:
5-7pm, Wednesday 26th September 2012
Location TBC

To attend the AGM visit the eventbrite page here:
http://operationfarm-agm.eventbrite.co.uk

At the AGM the board will present a report on the past year’s activity and will hold elections for new board members.

Joining the board – can you help?
Being a board member involves attending meetings approximately every two months, reviewing internal emails and contributing to discussions and helping to guide and oversee the organisation.

In particular we need a new Treasurer as our current Treasurer, Rachel Summerscales, is taking a 12 month sabbatical to travel around South America.

We are looking for all kinds of skills and competencies, a recent board audit found we needed help in areas including:

- Business Development and Management (including business planning and regulatory compliance)

- Finance (including budget planning, setting, and monitoring, knowledge of tax and other legal requirements, use of finance software – quickbooks etc, preparing company accounts)

- Marketing and communications

- Information Technology (including technical support and website development)

- Buildings and office maintenance

If you would like to help email us and we’ll send a short application form.

Many people expressed an interest in joining the board during the vision research and development phase and we’d encourage those people to submit an application.

Closing date for applications is Wednesday 19th September 2012.
Operation Farm – land working group
Finally, things are progressing at speed with regard to finding possible land for Operation Farm and we are working with Tameside Council to progress one council-owned site in particular.

The board need help to progress this work and so are inviting interested people to join a ‘Land working group’. Membership will involve email discussions, the occasional meeting, bits of research and visits to potential sites. This follows the successful creation of our Orchard working group ‘Hyde Park Community Orchard Supporters Group’ who are already up and running and have secured a small grant for activities.

To express an interest in the Land Working Group email: operationfarm@gmail.com

Upcoming events
Operation Farm will have a stall at the Tameside Food, Drink, Health & Wellbeing Fair
Saturday 29th September, 12 – 4pm at New Charter Academy
Broadoak Road, Ashton-under-Lyne, OL6 8RF
http://www.mistrymarketingevents.co.uk/tfdf.php

Apple Day at Hyde Park Community Orchard
October 2012
Watch this space for more details

Many thanks,
From all at Operation Farm

August 2012

Dawn of Park Cafe and Operation Farm (see her apron!) is featured in a new photography exhibition in Liverpool celebrating green spaces in urban areas, from gardens in prisons to asylum seekers’ allotments to wildflower meadows on housing estates.

The Guardian newspaper are sponsors of the exhibition which is at the National Wildflower Centre in Liverpool from 22 June to 28 September, free entry, nwc.org.uk

Photograph: Jane Sebire

Take a look at the Operation Farm Vision: a short report documenting the feasibility study we carried out for the project between September 2011 and June 2012: Operation Farm – final report

Stakeholder_Analysis_Operation_Farm

The work was supported by the Lottery’s Local Food Fund.

A huge thanks to everyone who attended the launch on Wednesday which was a brilliant afternoon. The sun shone, and the artworks, especially the classroom mosaic looked resplendant, and the wildflowers, boosted by the recent rain added a splash of colour to the proceedings.

70 children from local schools, Oakdale and Flowery Field, enjoyed creative activities and tours of the orchard. They also brought hats, poems and pictures they had made especially for the day.  Prizes for these were awarded by Mayor Brenda Warrington who kindly attended to open the orchard. Well done to all the children involved.

Oakdale School also produced a beautiful banner  to commemorate the day.

As ever the Park Cafe provided delicious refreshments and thanks to all the trainees, staff and volunteers who helped out on the day. Thanks again to the Groundwork UK and Big Lottery Fund’s Community Spaces programme for making this possible, and to Hyde District Assembly as well for their support.

Take a look at this fantastic video tracking the improvements made to the Hyde Park Community Orchard, overseen by Operation Farm.

Credits for the film:
Project manager: Anna Seward, Operation Farm
Project administrator: Rachel Summerscales, Operation Farm
Community Artists: Richard Dawson, Jacqui Symons, Ann Gilligan & Lesley Bardsley
Additional facilitation: Martin Proffitt,(Proffits CIC)  Jonathan Wells, (Groundwork UK)
Local authority liaison and co-ordination: Debs Kaufmann and Andy Brennan, Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council

Special thanks to:
Alison Shockledge and all the staff and trainees at the Park Cafe,
Pupils and staff from Flowery Field Primary School, Oakfield Primary School, Oakdale Primary School and Godley Primary School.
Also, Hyde Tech young carer’s group, The art group at Grafton House, Christianne Garbett and students from Tameside College.
And Councillor Philip Fitzpatrick, all at Operation Farm, and Hyde District Assembly for additional support.

Funding:
The video and the recent orchard improvements were funded through Groundwork UK  and the Big Lottery Fund’s Community Spaces programme
The orchard was planted in 2010 with support of a Connecting Communities Grant from Hyde District Assembly

Film:
Camera work and editing:Boz Hayward and Phil Korbel

Additional artworks footage:Richard Dawson
Music: Boz Hayward/ Brian Tibby
Photography: Dave Gee, Muoo Photography &  Boz Hayward/ Phil Korbel