Looking Back 

In January, gyms bring out dusty equipment … and pack it away in February when the resolutions fade! As important as it is to look forward and plan, it’s equally important to 
look back. 



2023 was a good year for VBDS:

• registration as a charity with the Charity Commission;
• veg box deliveries slowly grew to a new record in December;
• increased funding and donations, including from the National Lottery Fund;
• volunteer numbers grew, and the first staff member was appointed; 
• recipe cards added to veg boxes.

But most of all, we continued doing what we do best – delivering fresh, healthy veg boxes to those in need in our community. 

In Hit the Ground Kneeling: Seeing leadership differently by Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York, he recommends, when ‘tasks become ends in themselves rather than steps towards the goals and desires that used to motivate us’, taking regular time-outs to reorient ourselves with our ‘first love’. The beginnings of VBDS date back to a passion for vegetable gardening and healthy eating and a desire to share the excess at the allotment with those in need in our community - our ‘first love’. The vision was ignited by an ancient, biblical and lost custom of gleaning: not reaping the corners of a field, and not going over the field again after the first harvest, to allow the ‘poor and foreigners’ to collect what was left behind. 



We had ourselves experienced difficult times financially and understood the despair, helplessness, and embarrassment that entails, as well as the kindness of those who helped us. 

Thanks to the generosity of the Potton Allotment gardeners, support from Andrea MacAdam at  BedsRCC and Cllr Tracey Wye, and financial support from Potton Consolidated Charity, we 
delivered our first veg boxes in Potton in June 2020. And as the saying goes, ‘the rest is history’.

In 2023, we delivered 1,500 veg boxes, benefiting 4,000 individuals in Potton, Biggleswade, Sandy, and the surrounding areas.

You can help, too! Check us out on Facebook, or contact us for more info. 

Photos:

1. 'Beginnings.' Andrea MacAdam, BedsRCC, and Sharon Mey, VBDS, at the Potton Allotments in June 2020
2. An early allotment veg box