Growing Skills, Confidence and Community: Fruit & Nut Village, Stan’s Café & Selly Oak Trust School Collaboration

Heritage Orchard & Community Garden sign held up by two participants of the grafting and planting sessions.

A quiet strip of unused land in front of Stan’s Café’s Edwardian building has become the focus of an ambitious and heartfelt collaboration between Fruit & Nut Village, Stan’s Café and Selly Oak Trust School. What began as a simple idea - to transform a neglected green space - has quickly evolved into a project rich with learning, community connection, and environmental renewal.

The partnership brings together horticultural expertise, creative ambition, and a commitment to supporting young disabled people by developing practical skills and confidence. As Matthew, a volunteer with Fruit & Nut Village, explains in his reflection dated 12 March 2026:

“Fruit & Nut Village, in collaboration with Our Facility and Selly Oak Trust School, are working on an exciting new project to transform the front of Our Facility into a beautiful new garden space. This project will develop the horticultural learning of students from Selly Oak Trust School, cultivate the garden space into one that supports native and naturalised plant species (with an emphasis on edible plants) and in time becoming an oasis for local wildlife.”

For Matthew, the work is deeply personal:

“As a volunteer with Fruit & Nut Village, a horticulture mature student and a disabled person, this project is dear to my heart. It feels really good to be able to assist fellow disabled young students in learning more about gardening and plants, and through this learning develop their confidence, teamwork and appreciation of nature. Through my participation, I’m also developing my own gardening skills, personal qualities, and gaining confidence and experience toward a future career in horticulture.”

He also praises the supportive environment created by the facilitators:

“The facilitators do a great job of leading the sessions, bringing their excellent gardening knowledge to bear and conveying it and the practical instructions in a clear understandable way. The students are having an enjoyable time and are a delight to be around. I’m really happy opportunities such as this one are available for disabled young people, and I can’t wait to see the growth of both the garden and the participants through our collaborative efforts!”

The enthusiasm is shared by Ewan, the current Fruit & Nut Village Chair, who reflected on 19 March 2026:

“At Fruit & Nut, we are keen to let as many people as we can within the city know about our great work. The fantastic Stan’s Café also want to raise their profile, and have a beautiful ‘front of house’; the impressive Pete Haw Tierney and his merry band of students are always looking for new horticultural challenges. So, it came to be that this impressive triad of organisations are working together, in what so far is perfect harmony, to create a beautiful space.”

Ewan, Fruit & Nut Village Chair, helping two students during a grafting session at Stan's Café.

From the school’s perspective, the project has become a powerful learning experience. Peter Haw‑Tierney, writing on 20 March 2026, describes the transformation he has witnessed among his Year 12 Horticulture students:

“Students in Year 12 Horticulture at Selly Oak Trust School have embarked on an exciting joint venture with Stan's Cafe and Fruit & Nut Village, to transform an un-used area of land into a living, breathing, edible garden! They have been developing their practical and interpersonal skills through this real-life environmental project, learning how to propagate a wide range of native plants and learn incredible techniques such as grafting of rare apple trees to increase biodiversity in our local, inner-city area.”

He highlights not only the technical skills gained, but the personal growth:

“The students have made significant progress so far developing from shy and quiet, to happy to have conversations with specialists and volunteers from both partners, having plenty of laughs and cups of tea along the way. It is a pleasure to see them tackling complex skills with confidence, which will build resilience and curiosity in our next generation of gardeners.”

The collaboration has also enriched his own teaching:

“As their teacher, I have benefited from the technical knowledge, skills and understanding of the instructors and volunteers, and am getting more confident with techniques that I can then pass on to even more students through the school, so the project has even more impact.”

And the impact extends beyond school hours:

“Finally, it is delightful to hear that students have been visiting the garden outside of school times with their parents and families to see how the work is shaping, especially with the new sign explaining the project. I hope the project can continue, subject to funding, as it is benefiting all of us in varying ways, and needs time to embed the hard graft we have put in so far.”

Stan’s Café, too, sees the project as part of a broader vision for their building and its role in the community. Michelle Smith, writing on 27 March 2026, explains:

“Stan’s Cafe have been based at a former Edwardian School for 3 years, and are hoping to gain approval to apply for a Community Asset Transfer to transform the building into a valuable resource for artists, grassroots arts and education companies, and local community groups. This process is currently on hold, but they have a temporary licence for 2 years and decided they wanted to continue to develop the building in a positive way.”

The garden project emerged from this desire:

“Together with Fruit & Nut Village, we worked on the concept of transforming a long, disused green space in front of the building into a Heritage Orchard and Community Garden. With the help of the NNS microgrant, this project has now begun and has already made a significant impact to the building and groups that have been working on it.”

She describes the collaborative effort that prepared and planted the site:

“University of Birmingham Conservation Students prepared the land with help from Fruit & Nut Village volunteers. Students from Selly Oak Trust School, a special education (SEND) secondary school, then took part in weekly gardening sessions, learning many new skills such as grafting trees, propagating plants, using tools, and learning how to maintain the plants. Although the project is at an early stage, the amount of edible plants and trees already growing is beyond Stan’s Cafe expectations - a huge amount of work has been achieved.”

For Stan’s Café, the project embodies their hopes for the building’s future:

“The Year 12 and 13 students have brought life and energy back into an area of the building that had been left untouched for many years. Watching their confidence grow over the weekly sessions is exactly what Stan’s Cafe hopes for the building to be about: building relationships between the different users, creating shared ownership of spaces, and helping to develop people in a wide variety of ways. This project will help individuals with their mental and physical health, employment prospects, social engagement and most importantly allow them to have fun whilst learning in a different space to their normal environment!”

Group photo with students, staff, and volunteers across the three collaborating organisations, posing proudly with the community orchard sign.

Finally, Ruth, writing on 31 March 2026, reflects on the personal meaning the project holds for her:

“I've really enjoyed working on this project with Stan's Cafe and Selly Oak Trust School because it has given me the opportunity to share my knowledge and experience in plant propagation and care, in a way that I can see is making a real difference to my local area and the people who live in it. I became involved with this type of work because I was struggling with my mental health after I was hit by a car and left with a physical disability, and it has helped me a lot, so I am very keen on share that with other people, especially those who may have experienced similar struggles (I am also neurodivergent). We have already achieved a lot with the first set of sessions, and I am very much looking forwards to seeing what we've done grow and develop.”

Together, these voices paint a picture of a project that is far more than a garden. It is a space where skills are nurtured, confidence blossoms, and community takes root. The collaboration between Fruit & Nut Village, Stan’s Café and Selly Oak Trust School is already transforming both the land and the people who tend it, and its growth has only just begun.