Nationwide volunteers learn how to grow and be themselves at The Sanctuary Garden

Fife Voluntary Action helped Nationwide to arrange a volunteering day at The Sanctuary Garden, Dunfermline, as part of their commitment to promote volunteering and give back to the community.

Sarah Abbott, team leader at Nationwide, talked with us about their motivation to volunteer at the garden “Last year we helped at a community garden too and the sense of fulfilment people got out of it was invaluable. It is really good for the team to go outside and do something very different from their day-to-day responsibilities - it gives everyone the chance to relax and chat, get to know each other outside of work. The Sanctuary Garden is making gardening accessible and today our team has learned something really important – that you don’t need to be perfect, anyone can get involved and have fun. In the world of computers and AI, this has been very human, very grounding experience.”

Grant Stewart, coordinator at the Sanctuary Garden, said: “One of the benefits of people coming to volunteer in the garden is that it demystify growing – a lot of people think that gardening requires a lot of hard work and not suitable for everyone but it doesn’t need to be, growing plants can be easy if you stick to the basics. The Sanctuary Garden is a welcoming space to everyone because our main goal is to promote

wellbeing and connection to nature – it’s a mental health space that just also happens to grow vegetables. We appreciate all the support from FVA - having teams from different companies helps us spread the word, raise awareness of what is happening in the garden and show that volunteering is good for the health.”

And indeed, some of the Nationwide employees already started talking about coming back with their children, following the garden online and offering to help with different tasks that will make sure that the project continues to prosper.

People remarked that it has been a wonderful day and a great opportunity to connect with nature, learn how to do more things in the garden, do a bit of physical activity outside the office and feel like they can support a local community project.

Over the few hours the Nationwide team spend at the garden, they managed to plant over 2000 seeds and seedlings which will later be distributed to local schools, community groups and residents as part of the Sanctuary Garden’s aim to give away 10 000 plants to the people in Fife.

A lot of the people also walked away with plants for themselves, seedlings to share with their children’s schools and homegrown organic vegetables.

Everyone really enjoyed their volunteering day and made plans to come back to the Sanctuary garden and share their experience with family and friends.

This is a wonderful example of Employer-Supported Volunteering (ESV), where a company’s employees take paid time off to volunteer during work hours. For employees, an ESV programme can help them acquire new skills, develop themselves within their community, and give a sense of wellbeing. For companies, this can boost employee morale, wellbeing and engagement, and boost their brand within the community. In return, third sector organisations gain essential skills and support and raise the profile of the vital work they’re doing.

If your team or organisation would be interested in getting involved with ESV, please contact Fife Voluntary Action's Volunteering Development Team at [email protected].

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