St Werburghs City Farm is a small charity. We welcome 60,000 visitors each year, and provide a number of vital community services for over 3,500 people facing disadvantage of all ages and backgrounds. One of our core aims is to better connect people with the story of their food, from farm gate to plate. We believe wholeheartedly in the importance of increasing people’s knowledge of where their food comes from, especially if they choose to eat meat. We offer the animals under our care the highest standards of welfare, and are proud to keep them for farming purposes. We feel that we have a very important role to play in educating people about where their food comes from so that they can make an informed decision about their food choices.
We believe that a thriving local food economy is the key to a sustainable diet. An important part of this is supporting local farmers by buying and eating food that can be grown within the local climate, and supporting local food production to become a viable alternative to supermarkets and factory farming.
Recent discussion has taken place concerning the Farm’s turkeys. We are aware that raising animals for meat is an emotive issue, and having listened to the views of a small section of our community, we decided not to hold our annual public turkey auction. However, the aims and objectives of the Farm remain unchanged and our turkeys have been sold for Christmas.
We are aware that members of Bristol Vegan Action group independently raised money, with the intention of giving it to a homeless charity in exchange for the turkeys going to a sanctuary. St Werburghs City Farm had no part in setting up the fundraiser and will not receive the money – but we are very happy that it will go towards helping the homeless this Christmas.
The main focus of our work is supporting disadvantaged members of our community to learn, grow and thrive, whether it be providing placements for adults with learning disabilities to gain skills in organic gardening, helping a young person at risk of exclusion finish their education or supporting disadvantaged adults to gain in skills and confidence. We intend to focus our resources and time to best support them, at what can be a difficult time of year.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas,
The entire Farm team
Visit us
Come and see what we're up to - meet the animals, or stroll through the community gardens.
Treat yourself to refreshments from the award winning farm cafe overlooking our adventure playground.
Get a £1 bag of feed from a member of staff to hand feed the animals, or follow our new green energy discovery trail around the Farm.
