Stroud Valleys Project - Clare's News Column May 2019

It is so good to see how important our environment and nature is to people in our community. Awareness has been raised by the children striking from school, protests by Extinction Rebellion, several television programmes (particularly David Attenborough) and the increase in news reporting of environmental and climate issues. We see lots of people taking part in our projects or events or buying eco products or recycling packaging in our shop and are aware that many people are ‘doing their bit ‘ for the environment. Hopefully this will all encourage our government to act now before it’s too late.

Air Max

This is a great time of year to be out and about and learning more about nature locally. This week we are organising two Bat Walks, one on Thursday 16^th May (free for over 55s as part of the Royal Voluntary Service “First Time for Everything” programme) and one on Friday 17^th May. You will encounter Stroud’s many incredible types of bats with a local expert. We will listen for bats using bat detectors and hope to spot some flying.Bring warm clothes and a torch. Both walks are in Stratford Park 8.30pm to 10.30pm and you can book a place through Stroud Valleys Project. On Friday night The Museum in the Park will be open late for Museums at Night, 7pm- 11pm - a chance to explore the Museum and ‘secret garden’ after hours.

Our popular Seedling Swap and Plant Sale is this Saturday 18 May from 10.30am - 1pm outside SVP eco shop

If you have any spare or unwanted seedlings you can give them a good home through our seedling swap/sale. Bring along any seedlings that you have spare and exchange them for others.Both vegetable and flower varieties welcome.

Even if you don’t have any seedlings to swap, you can still take some for a donation. It’s a great way to meet other gardeners and to share advice and knowledge.

Details: Created: 02 September 2019

SVP videos

Here are two videos showing some of our lockdown work

Open

Dear eco shop customers

UPDATE : We are open Tuesday - Friday 10.30am to 4pm, and Saturday 10am - 2pm.

Thank you for all your messages and enquiries while we have been closed during lockdown - it means a lot to us.

We are delighted to let you know that we have started our programme of re-opening with some limited hours and special arrangements in place. We will be undertaking constant review and monitoring and plan to gradually increase hours, access and availability as we can, keeping both your safety and the safety of our staff at the forefront of our minds. We will do our best to keep you up to date with all our plans and opening hours via social media (instagram: @svpecoshop and @svpcharity, facebook Stroud Valleys Project and Twitter @svpcharity), on our website and notices on our door.

Please be aware that we are opening the shop only - recycling schemes are NOT available at the current time.

We will open on from Tuesday to Friday from 10.30am to 4pm and Saturdays from 10am to 2pm. For the moment, our counter and till will be at the door and we will serve you from there. This allows us to open now, while we continue to improve safety inside the shop for our customers.

Our counter is wide - so we hope you will feel comfortable being served by us; we believe it is possible to maintain the 2m social distancing through thoughtful and respectful behaviour - but please let us know if you are not comfortable with our arrangements.

Please queue across the front of the shop, maintaining a 2m distance between household groups.

We are building our stock back up so plan to offer all the products you are used to - but we're sure lots of you will be interested in refills. We WILL be doing refills but please bear in mind the following:

Please thoroughly wash your bottles before bringing them to us. We reserve the right not to refill if we are not happy that the bottles are clean. We will be cleaning our hands between filling bottles for different customers.
If possible, please bring bottles to us with a view to collecting them next day, or later the same day. Maintaining high standards of hygiene will inevitably mean the process takes longer. By having bottles overnight, we can aim to serve more customers within the day. In particular, bringing in refills on Saturdays will most unlikely be possible for you to collect on the same day.
If you have more than one bottle, please give them to us in a bag so that we can keep them together, ideally with your name marked clearly on it. If you can also provide a list of what you want, that will help too!
We have set up an email address so that you can email orders to us in advance: ecoshop@stroudvalleysproject.org . Emailing in advance will help us streamline the process even more.
Some prices have increased since March, but we have kept as many products as possible at the same price. We aim to have a price list available in the near future.

We would prefer contactless payment - but can also take cash.

Finally, if you are unable to get to the shop in person, please don't hesitate to contact us by email (ecoshop@stroudvalleysproject.org) or by phone (01453 753358) and we will see if there is a way we can help.

Looking forward to welcoming you back!

Stroud Valleys Project wins Gold Award

Our Volunteers Say

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I've found the projects inspiring and I've developed skills I didn't know I had, to the extent that I am now able to find employment in new fields.

I will always be grateful to the staff and volunteers at Stroud Valleys Project for their encouragement and warm support.

Being involved with Stroud Valleys Project has been a great experience. I've enjoyed and learnt so much through various courses and volunteer projects I've worked on.

Thank you all at SVP for the help and support you have given me in the last couple of years, which has helped me to get my foot back on the ladder in the world of work.

I loved the course (Veg Growing), it was the highlight of my week

“Often I feel so bad I don’t want to do anything but after coming here, working with my group in the sunshine, I always feel more cheerful. They are my friends now.”

“Volunteering with SVP is the best thing that happened to me in my life.”

“I never thought I would get into gardening and growing stuff, but through all my work with SVP I have learnt to really appreciate nature.”

“We get lots of work done – and we have a laugh!”

“Our group is like pieces from a jigsaw puzzle. Everybody mucks in and does what they can, and the job gets finished in no time.”

“When somebody has a bad day, the others in the team make them feel better.”

“I learn lots of interesting things and I feel useful.”

Fundraising Ideas

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Events

Mar 26: Coronavirus arrangements