Veg boxes Similar to last year, our veg box scheme continues to grow incrementally, expanding in both in area and flexibility. We still provide smaller sized veg boxes for single people living on their own, at an affordable cost but we now also offer a bespoke build-your-own box to reduce potential food wastage. This has proved really popular and has encouraged some new customers to join the scheme who may have food intolerances. We continue to develop relationships with our older customers and provide a small amount of additional support when we deliver to them – if this is required. It might be lifting or moving something, or in the case of one customer, picking them up from a hospital appointment when they were struggling with transportation. Other Selling Activities We still attend three local Farmers Markets, held monthly in the local area to broaden our profile and to seek out new veg box scheme members Local residents appreciate the opportunity to purchase goods direct from the provider and many are older, so are limited in some opportunities to travel. We have established a presence and relationships with many new customers in these towns and income is constant. We have secured a new partnership to scale up our microgreens part of the business. We are working with Good Food Oxford to develop a local Microgreens offer for Oxford University Chefs. We have been awarded grant funding to install a 40ft climate-controlled shipping container so that we can scale-up and grow on site. This will be installed and developed next financial year (2025-2026). This will be valuable in terms of revenue, particular during the off-season but it will also enable us to introduce a new teaching element to our STEM programme. Volunteer hours Our volunteer hours again totalled over 1000 in the past twelve months. Our continued philosophy is that we engage with individuals by including them in our weekly working commitments so that they feel included, valued and useful to the business. We have learnt that this elicits more mutual reward than tasks created specifically for the purposes of individual engagement. The individual gains an insight into our commercial aspirations, a healthy working environment outdoors and a period of time engaging with nature. All of this has both mental and physical health benefits. The scope and extent of the physical exercise required is carefully managed to the capabilities of the individual. Our volunteer opportunities included school work-experience, individuals looking for learning opportunities and a general desire to contribute positively to a local innovative enterprise. We also worked closely with a Postgraduate studying Food Policy, engaging her intellect and research and working with her to teach one of our primary school visits. We adapted our support for the local community due to increased sales and less surplus produce. Instead, we now donate hours to the Community Larder scheme operated by a local charity organisation. We have a large vehicle so we provide the collection and sorting of surplus food donated daily by local supermarkets. This scheme supports a lot of local people who are struggling with the pressures of life and need a helping hand with food and other essential items. Improvements to Infrastructure We were successful in securing grant funding from the local authority for levelling-up funding targeted at sustainable businesses. We have installed 10kW of solar PV and 10kW of battery storage that will provide seasonal proportions of the power needs for both our aquaponic system and the new Microgreens shipping container. The system was installed in November 2024. It is a big jump for us in terms of increased sustainability and an added element to our STEM teaching. It will also reduce our annual utility spend. Primary school STEM programme Our primary (KS2) school visit programme has continued, incorporating STEM teaching linked to horticulture and aquaponics production. The challenge with this programme is cost as schools are struggling to afford the rising costs of coach hire which can be as much as £500 for a 40 seater vehicle for one class and accompanying adults. Feedback from visits is again positive and we continue to have repeat visits from individual schools. We also act on suggestions for additional content. Our new element focussing on gut health, in line with the growing research on this subject, proves popular. This is linked strongly to our fresh produce activities and microgreens growing. Work experience and Older Learning This year we worked with a postgraduate studying Food Policy at Reading University. This is a critical emerging Government debate, with a Policy Paper for a UK Food Strategy being published in July 2025. Working with Nelleke has allowed us to objectively evaluate our education programme, in which she acted as support teacher on one school visit.

We conducted a survey of our scheme members last year so there was no need to repeat this in such a short space of time. If a customer leaves our veg box scheme we endeavour to complete an exit interview. Only two customers left this year – one due to cost of living pressures and the second due to moving out of the area – so neither a reflection on satisfaction. We continue to talk extensively to our customers – predominantly face-to-face when we deliver or at Farmers’ Markets. This provides honest feedback and a useful dialogue with which to sustain and build our business. We also pick up new veg box scheme members by recommendation only – which is indicative of satisfaction with our service.

No remuneration was received

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration