A WOKINGHAM charity has received the Prime Minister’s Point of Light Award in recognition of its work to address sustainability and food poverty.
Freely Fruity, whose goal is to make fresh and healthy produce freely available to all, picked up the cross-party accolade, which is supported by all MPs last Monday. It celebrates volunteers, charity leaders or community champions and the positive change they are making for their community.
Organisers Matthew Knight, Ryan Simpson and James Whittingham became the 2107th, 2108th and 2109th recipients of the 10 Downing Street award.
Mr Knight was delighted to receive the recognition, he said: “We’re very humbled and appreciative to receive this huge honour. The fact it is a cross-party award is really cool.
“The BBC Berkshire award last year was big for us, but this is the biggest award we’ve ever received, not that we do this for any kind of recognition. We’re looking to expand this coming year and recruit more volunteers – there are several big projects in the pipeline.”
The charity was established in 2020, during the pandemic, and is based on a two-acre organic site in Sindlesham. All food grown on site is donated to food banks and other charities, with more than 1.5 tonnes of produce distributed in its first year.
Freely Fruity also cultivates a fruit tree nursery – these trees are grown to be planted in various community projects.
In close partnership with Wokingham Borough Council and Reading Borough Council, the organisation has established five community orchards and involved hundreds of pupils from local schools to take part in the tree planting and produce growing processes.
Mr Knight, who is also the ecology and sustainability lead at Shinfield St Mary’s Junior School, said: “It’s massive for young people to understand these issues without experiencing climate anxiety – we don’t want to scare them, that’s not the point.
“It’s about explaining that we’re not in the best situation but, if we follow some easy steps, we can all chip in and make a difference.”
Award winners are nominated anonymously, and the group has been left scratching their heads over who put their names forward.
“We asked the ‘obvious’ people – all the people we could possibly think of,” Mr Knight explained. “They all said they knew nothing about it.
“Whoever it was, we’re massively appreciative of them.”
For more information, visit: www.freelyfruity.org
