News

Participants and Residents from our Southampton Way (SWAY) service took part in the planting, nurturing, and watering of a plot of spinach in the service garden with the support of recovery worker Olalekan Oladipo. The Participants and Residents played important roles looking after the plot.

They all took the initiative to retrieve the water hose from storage and ensured the vegetables were well looked after and adequately watered.

On Wednesday the 7^th of September, the Participants and Residents agreed to harvest the spinach. They felt happy that they were able to grow their own food and were happy and excited about their joint efforts in nurturing the vegetables from seeds to maturity.

After the harvesting, the vegetables were taken to the service kitchen, washed thoroughly and prepared for consumption.

The harvested spinach was made into a lovely stew by the service chef, and everyone it along with their dinner.

Health and well-being benefits of growing your own food include:

• Its healthier
• It tastes better
• Gardening is good exercise and can be fun
• Homegrown food is cheaper
• It helps ease depression
• It cuts down on your grocery budget
• Increases healthy fruit and vegetable consumption

This is such a wonderful initiative, and we can all take a leaf out of the Residents and staff at SWAY’s book.