COMMUNITY
We are proud to play an active part within our community. Each year we donate raffle prizes to a large number of local schools and businesses for their fundraising, as well as supporting some brilliant local charities.
Throughout 2024 we will once again be supporting some of the wonderful charities within Oxfordshire and the surrounding areas. So far this year, our chosen charities are:
SSNAP:
This year our Pick Your Own Sunflowers will be in aid of SSNAP (Supporting sick newborn and their parents).
In the UK, 1 in 10 babies need specialist care at birth. SSNAP supports sick & premature babies and their families in the Newborn Care Unit at the John Radcliffe Hospital.
Imagine your newborn baby needing specialist care at birth. Instead of those very special days getting to know your baby as a family, you’re catapulted into an unfamiliar world of incubators, wires, medical tests and interventions.
While your baby has specialist treatment at the John Radcliffe Hospital, SSNAP provide emotional, medical, financial and informational support to help families through the trauma & upheaval.
They champion the right of all sick and premature babies treated in Oxford to receive the best care. They do this by supporting families, purchasing life saving equipment and enabling life changing research and training.
The Ashfield Trust / Butterfly Suite:
The Ashfield Trust do incredible work supporting families at the John Radcliffe Maternity Unit in Oxford, creating suites that give families a private and appropriate space to grieve, create memories and spend time following the loss of their child in late pregnancy or shortly after birth. The team based at the Butterfly Suite personally supported one of our own team members in 2023 following the loss of their baby, Alfie.
Our customers can help us to support this charity by choosing to add on a small donation when booking tickets to Sprouts Play Barn. Millets Farm will then match every donation made.
We hope that by supporting this charity in 2024 we can not only raise money for them to continue their important work, but to also raise awareness of baby loss and to help support those within our community who have also experienced this.
The Wantage and Abingdon Food Banks:
Every week we donate fresh fruit and veg to Abingdon Food Bank and you can help to! If you’d like to contribute towards this as part of your shop, simply pick up a leaflet in-store or ask a member of the team.
We are honoured to be able to support these great local charities and will continue to work with our local communities as much as we can.
In 2023 we supported…
The Wantage and Abingdon Food Banks:
Every week we donated fresh fruit and veg to Abingdon Food Bank, to allow them to offer fresh food options along with the food parcels they distribute to families every week.
Style Acre:
A donation from each sunflower picked in our PYO sunflower patch has been made to Style Acre, and we are pleased to have donated £4,000. Style Acre do incredible work supporting adults with learning disabilities and Autism. Their person-centred support ranges from 24-hour care for those with complex learning, health and or physical disabilities to a few hours of support per week for those who live more independently. They also run three community hubs in Wallingford, Didcot and Banbury so that people with learning disabilities can get the best out of their local communities. Find out more about this great local charity
Be Free Young Carers:
Be Free do amazing work to support some of the 12,000 young carers in Oxfordshire with their practical and emotional needs. We are giving Sprouts customers the opportunity to add 25p onto their online booking transaction – which Millets will match. At Sprouts, we also offer Be Free the use of our amazing facilities for young carers to enjoy some much-needed respite from their very adult responsibilities through donating tickets and holding exclusive events.
Helen & Douglas House:
Millets Farm Centre hosted a Firewalk which raised an incredible £10,000. Helen & Douglas House helps local families cope with the challenges of looking after a terminally ill baby or child who will die prematurely.