July 2022
It is always wonderful to receive feedback from growers on how our partnership benefits workers directly. This was a very encouraging note with feedback recently received from BerryWorld:
“Working closely with our network of berry growers across South Africa and Zimbabwe, we're acutely aware of local challenges and opportunities across their farms. As a team we do our utmost to support our growers on a technical and commercial level. Beyond this we also work with retailers across the globe to help give back locally, so we're immensely grateful for the Waitrose Foundation for helping fund the upgrade of a farm canteen and, furthermore, utilise the space for training.
The Hoopenberg Berries farm give a focus to social wellbeing amongst workers and their canteen is a central meeting point for socialising (and eating of course). However the whole canteen was in need of some upkeep and was looking a little too 'well-loved' so BerryWorld worked with Hoopenberg to secure funding for the renovations needed.
Once the finance was secured and the upgrades had been made, the investment didn't stop there, the new space was used as a base to offer training to staff, the first of which was a finance mentoring workshop and more sessions are due in the future. BerryWorld and Hoopenberg farm would like to thank the Waitrose Foundation for their continued support."
