Foreword by Esther Kovacs, Team Springboard Horticultural Manager

Dear All Team-ZEN,

This has been both a difficult and a tremendous year! The weather has given us challenges as it was first quite cold, then very dry (so much so we used up all our rainwater, and had to fill up with tap water  3 times!). To change this we have now got 2 new thousand litre containers installed, and also more 200L barrels, and with making and using lots of our compost, hopefully making us more climate resilient!
Different groups helped us make the Palace (our big shed) more practical, and the new boots we are using fit on the new shelves, plus several books too.
We have also grown and harvested over 500 kgs(!) of organic produce, which was partly shared/enjoyed by lots of people, challenging several to learn how to cook and use different produce) and lots of it was donated to people in need!
We had several groups in too - not only helping, but hopefully helping their mental health and learning wildlife gardening and food growing,- and our wonderful ZEN regular volunteers/helpers have done so much! Of course it’s not just about growing, but also being together, and a real community - lovely, kind, resourceful and accepting people together.
Plus we still had visitors, and thanks to ZEN, I could work with 5 deprived schools in Coventry and also worked with people with SEN in Crow - sharing the vegetable and herb plants and fruit, not just growing produce, but also cooking and teaching people how to make nutritious foods!
I know I keep saying this, but nothing would happen without all of you all volunteers, helpers, fundraisers - Lucy Lynch has been great at finding opportunities and helping us keep going, and getting me to fill out needed paperwork… (also Jarem!), we even started working with a big company looking after their houseplants, and already had worked a bit with SEN people there. 
Last, but definitely not least I must mention all the wonderful Funders helping us to keep going - providing funding for projects, compost, plants, seeds, tools, and all things needed to keep going!
 It all will help us to be able to work in ZEN, and hopefully keep making people happier and showing how important Nature is, while growing local, tasty, organic food! 
THANK YOU ALL :)  


Team Springboard Mission Statement
We are committed to use horticulture/nature to:

• Support people to smash barriers into work
• Raise awareness of environmental issues
• Encourage healthy eating and lifestyles
• Protect Wildlife
• Build Community
• Reduce social isolation    

Team Springboard CIC Theory of change

Inputs                                    Outputs                   Outcomes                        Impact
Funding                     Open Volunteering sessions    Learning to grow food       Well being
Time of volunteer                                                   Social interaction
directors                                                               Exercise and fresh air                                                                                                                             Organic produce  
                                                                            Improved social skills
                                                                            Better wildlife habitats

    



The Zen Garden
The Zen Garden is at the heart of Team Springboard CIC. This is a large rented plot on the Lake View Allotments site in Allesley, Coventry, where the regular open gardening sessions take place.
Team Springboard is passionate about bringing people together. In a society where people are increasingly encouraged to think about the things that divide them, Team Springboard reminds people of what can bring them together. At the ZEN Community Garden and in other places Team Springboard goes, people work alongside each other to grow food and create wildlife habitats. They chat and laugh over the hot drink and biscuit break and the Christmas celebration which takes place in the garden all day outdoors in the chilly December weather. And they feel the satisfaction of helping to grow food for people who don’t have enough.
Sustainability underpins everything at the Zen garden. The no dig policy promotes soil health, any pest control and fertilisers used are organic, rainwater is harvested and stored and green waste is composted. Many of the plants are grown from seed saved from the previous year.


Why we do what we do
When people come to the Zen Garden they benefit from the company, exercise, fresh air and enjoyment of gardening with Team Springboard. 
Academic research confirms what happens day to day. This article on the British Psychological Society website summarises research projects linking gardening with mental wellbeing.
Cultivating wellbeing and mental health through gardening | BPS
The article cites research linking the exercise involved in gardening and time in nature with wellbeing. The article also underlines the benefits for different age groups and gardening in different contexts such as home, at school or as in Team Springboard’s case in the community.

Open Gardening Sessions
This year Team Springboard CIC had 48 participants who did 968 hours across 81 open gardening sessions between them. 
The sessions were targeted towards people who benefit from the well being aspects of gardening. These included the long term unemployed, recent migrants getting to know the UK and people living with health conditions, some of them with mental health conditions, and neurodivergent people.
Team Springboard CIC was grateful to have 375 hours of volunteer help, mainly from corporate volunteers helping out as part of day long team building sessions. 
A survey showed participants felt that they are doing something useful, connecting to their community, learning something new and feeling happy when gardening with Team Springboard.

Case Study
Des and Dee moved from Hong Kong to Coventry in 2022. They garden once a month with Team Springboard on the Saturday volunteering days, despite moving an hour away a couple of years ago.

Des 
We started coming to Team Springboard in April 2023. We went to the Peace Orchard and Esther was there with a table promoting Team Springboard. I was new to Coventry and said: ‘where’s Allesley Old Road?’ (location of Team Springboard’s Zen community garden) and Esther showed me on Google maps and said: ‘Come next Wednesday.’ We did.
We both started to enjoy gardening when we came to Team Springboard. Coming here helped us integrate into British culture through gardening.
Dee
We hadn’t gardened before. We didn’t have a garden in Hong Kong. Renting a small plot costs a lot. And there is a waiting list. So gardening was new for us.
We have been moved so much by Esther and the team’s welcome and generosity. We love the culture of diversity here at Team Springboard and we benefit from the inclusivity.
We enjoy the wildlife here - we have seen a fox.
We have a small garden and we garden how we have learnt at Zen. We have some long grass and bare soil. Pied wagtails, woodpigeons, blackbirds and magpies come to the garden. We bought a composter and tried it for a year. It didn’t seem to be working. Then suddenly it turned into compost. We were so pleased.’

Contract Work
The CIC in Team Springboard CIC stands for Community Interest Company. That means doing contract work as well as grant funded open gardening sessions. The surplus from the contract work is combined with grant money to keep the open gardening sessions going.
This year for the first time Team Springboard worked with the School Food Matters charity. Team Springboard’s horticultural manager Esther Kovacs delivered the Coventry part of their National Lottery funded nationwide Young Marketeers project. Esther worked with pupils in primary schools to grow food in school gardens and sell it on a special market day. Proceeds were donated to the Coventry Food Network - an umbrella organisation for food projects in the city.
Towards the end of 2025 Team Springboard began working for an organisation in Lutterworth to care for house plants, also a new customer.
Team Springboard continues to work with Crow Recycling delivering gardening sessions at the Crow premises for people with learning difficulties.


Food Donations
Team Springboard’s open gardening session participants, volunteers and horticultural manager worked together to grow 529kg of fresh organic produce. The produce grown included apples, pears, plums, cucumbers, courgette, squash, pumpkin, chillies, Jerusalem artichokes, tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, elephant garlic, onions, leeks, herbs (like lemon balm, rosemary, basil, mint, thyme), radishes, currants, blackberries, raspberries and logan berries. Some of the organic and nutrient rich food was donated to food projects in Coventry and some was taken home by open gardening session participants.


Organisations which supported Team Springboard CIC in 2025
The National Lottery Awards for All
The Lillie Johnson Trust
The Blakemore Foundation
The FC Stokes Trust
The Heart of England Community Foundation - Coventry, Warwickshire and Solihull Communities Fund
Jaguar Land Rover
Environment Agency
Coventry Building Society
TEAM SPRINGBOARD JANUARY 2026

Last year the School Food Matters charity asked Team Springboard CIC to get involved with a growing in schools project. School Food Matters hired Team Springboard CIC to get children out in school gardens in Coventry primary schools. The scheme was part of a School Food Matters nation wide National Lottery Funded project called Young Marketeers to get children growing produce, selling it at a special market day and donating the funds raised to charity. 
Read the School Food Matters blog post about Team Springboard CIC here.