Strategic Proposals team at Gorgie Community Farm: Using our Day to Make a Difference

Three women and a man holding garden forks, standing in front of a polytunnel. The weather is wet and they are wearing raincoats.

Members of the Strategic Proposals team at Gorgie Farm

In November 2025, staff from Edinburgh Research Office volunteered at the reopened Gorgie Community Farm in Edinburgh. Annie Prentis, Research Bid Development Executive, tells the story of their Day to Make a Difference. Like the sound of it? You, too, can get involved.

On a bleak, grey, cold, damp Monday morning in November, four of us from the Strategic Proposals team made our way to Gorgie Community Farm in the heart of Edinburgh for a day of hard labour.

Spotting a local call out for volunteers and thinking about using our annual volunteering day before the end of the year, my colleagues Ina, Mary, Jochen and I went along to the farm for a day of garden clearing.

We tackled – and conquered! – a room-sized midden (essentially a big pile of garden waste), dug some trenches, cleared some beds, and dug out some pretty massive rhubarb plants.

This is all part of efforts to get the site at least partially reopened for use by a variety of community groups in spring 2026.

“Gorgie Farm is a wonderful community space within Edinburgh. Like so many, my daughter and I went frequently when it was previously open to the public. It was great to give back a little and contribute to Gorgie Farm and its future within Edinburgh.” (Ina Lindsay, Research Bid Development Manager

We greatly enjoyed our day there, with real satisfaction in what we helped with – despite the lingering sore muscles even a few days later! – and I would encourage everyone to make the most of the Day to Make a Difference scheme where possible.

Gorgie Farm first opened in the early 1980s and provided residents of Gorgie, Dalry and the wider area with the chance to experience farm life without leaving the city. After a period of closure, the Farm has started reopening under the charity Gorgie Community Farm. Preserving nature on the site for local communities is a key priority. Volunteers are currently needed for the community gardens, running events and activities, and fundraising. One-off volunteers are welcome.

The University’s A Day to Make a Difference employee benefit gives every member of staff an additional day of paid leave to volunteer for a charity, organisation or other good cause. To use your day, you need to request it on People and Money under ‘Special leave’, and your line manager needs to approve it. You can take the day all at once or a bit at a time.