Another year
Another year, another growing pattern – the early warm weather resulted in several allotments being ready to share earlier than last year and there were different vegetables which produced surplus. For example there were many more donated dwarf beans and very few runner beans!
Our infographic for 2025 shows produce from 7 sources was shared with 8 recipient affordable food projects.
This compares to the 2024 report where 7 sources shared produce with 8 recipients. All the links shared surplus fresh, locally grown produce weekly.
New allotment sites
We were excited to welcome two new allotment sites into the CropDrop operation:
- Larkhall allotments, with Jon, their enthusiastic rep., leapt into donating not once but twice a week: to the Larkhall’s New Oriel Hall on Mondays for their community meal and to Oasis City Centre Pantry on Thursdays.
- High Common approached us mid-season and through Melanie, their super enthusiastic contact, and the support of the Allotment Association we were able to set them up with a donation cupboard within 10 days and launch Monday donations to the Mercy in Action Pantry.
Claremont allotments' Pete deserves a mention for taking on the delivery of the weekly donations to New Oriel Hall in Larkhall, which was much appreciated.
Combe Down Allotments
CropDrop has supported the campaign to save Combe Down allotments. We are very sad that the site has now been vacated – and still hope this is only for a short while.
I still continue to be so grateful for the kindness and generosity of everyone especially through a challenging growing season. Nothing is ever wasted and I cannot convey my gratitude enough for the hundreds of nutritious meals that have been made and the myriad of food based experiences created for our wonderful kids. The produce and project has meant I have things to draw from especially now when budgets are tighter than ever. I don't think I can ever thank you enough!!!
Rosalie Forde
Head of Food and Design Technology, Three Ways School
Connections
Holiday Activity & Food programme
We collaborated with Jason, Lower Common East rep., and Sue at Keynsham allotments to deliver food activities for the Holiday Activity & Food programme (HAF) in the school holidays. Three 'taste the difference' sessions were held with Excel Tennis groups.
Bath Rugby Foundation's group at Castle Primary, Keynsham savoured “all about peas” and had a perfect visit to the allotments – where everybody had a delightful time.
The results were shared at a Feeding Britain webinar in September. The main conclusion is that, with the appropriate support, B&NES could do a lot more about the 'F' in HAF for these young people. Allotments can contribute to this opportunity – so watch this space in 2026.
Gleaning Produce from farms, commercial growers and orchards
CropDrop participates in one-off gleans of produce from farms and growers in B&NES. One glean session can provide a bonus bounty of fresh produce to many affordable food projects in the local area.
For a sixth year CropDrop collected and distributed pumpkins from Newton Farm and has collected surplus squash and pumpkins from Avon Valley Farm – sharing the bounty with Bath & Keynsham projects and Fareshare SW. This was all achieved with the help of 11 volunteers, including 7 students from Bristol University Air Squadron.
It has been a bumper year for apples. Many kilograms have been harvested from gardens & orchards and shared with food projects or taken to Bath City Farm for juicing and pasteurising. We hope the links between the food projects, Fareshare SW and Bath City Farm can be developed to harvest next year's fruit, help with the juicing & pasteurising and receive local apple juice back in the pantries.
Our plans for 2026
Our aims moving into the new year include:
We continue to work closely with the Bath Allotment Association to connect more allotments with food projects such as Abbey View and Canal Gardens. We also aim to seed more growing knowledge and confidence into areas like Twerton and Whiteway, by collaborating with the Twerton & Whiteway Network and Bath City Farm.
We will arrange CropDrop deliveries for the Grow for Life project surplus and Genesis Life project when they move back to the refurbished Gateway Centre.
We will build on the experiences of the 2025 apple harvest to explore a ‘Bath Fruit Tree Amnesty’.