GREEN-fingered hotel colleagues dug in deep as part of a planting project which will help to feed staff, patients and visitors at Stratford Hospital.
Team members from The Aden Hotel, on Waterside, took part in the Forest of Hearts event in Snitterfield as part of their Green Champions initiative.
Using eco plant pots which the group made from recycled newspapers, they donned their gardening gloves to plant spinach, courgettes and beetroots which will be grown in Stratford Hospital’s edible garden and used at its on-site Wellbeing Café to create nutritious and organic meals.
The team also created a vibrant ‘living wall’ which will be donated to spruce up the hospital’s car park and remove air pollutants, as well as planters which will be handed to Bishopton Community Centre to decorate the local area.
The event was part of an initiative launched by local charity The Forest of Hearts at the former RAF Snitterfield base off Gospel Oak Lane – a Second World War airfield used to train Belgian aircrews which has been transformed into a sustainable garden.
The five-acre site has been filled with around 2,000 trees with plans to double the number in 2023, alongside native hedgerows and an array of edible plants and vegetables to donate to Stratford Hospital’s Garden of Wellbeing.
The Garden of Wellbeing has been created by The Forest of Hearts to provide a sustainable community space and improve mental wellbeing for staff and patients.
Jayne O’Malley, the hotel’s group operations manager, said: “This is a fantastic community project which we are delighted to lend our support to.
“Our Green Champions initiatives are about working with the local community and supporting sustainability initiatives within our local area, while also introducing measures to meet our own sustainable goals within our hotels.
“We’ve made a number of changes at The Arden to be more sustainable such as introducing more energy-efficient light bulbs, reducing energy usage where possible, introducing canned water within our meeting rooms as opposed to using bottled water, and dramatically reducing the amount of paper printed.
“The Forest of Hearts scheme not only revitalises a previously empty space in Snitterfield but also supports so many wonderful local organisations such as Bishopton Community Centre and Stratford Hospital, so we hope these donations help.”
