A SOMERSET charity has received a £3,900 donation from an award-winning family-run farm shop in the county (January 2024).
Age UK Somerset was recently presented with the money that was raised by staff and customers at Rumwell Farm Shop & Café throughout 2023.
Anne Mitchell, Partner at the Farm Shop, located on the A38 between Taunton and Wellington, explains: “We’re delighted to have donated £3,900 to Age UK Somerset, which was our chosen Charity of The Year for 2023. We raised the money from proceeds from our quiz nights throughout the year and our December Candlelight Christmas Dinner. We also wore Christmas jumpers to help fundraise further. Each team member involved gave £2 to wear theirs.
“The charity does wonderful work helping to deliver services and activities for older people across Somerset and North Somerset. We were so please to have also helped raise awareness of the work it does. We also donated 10p from the sale of every half dozen of our large eggs to the charity. We hoped to raise £3,000 for the organisation and are thrilled to have smashed our target and gone over and above it too.”
Age UK Somerset, which also celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2023, is an independent charity. It works in the community to help older people that need support with a variety of services, which help to combat loneliness, keep people fit and well and support those struggling financially.
With only the equivalent of 24 dedicated staff it relies on its team of more than 300 volunteers to deliver services and activities for older people across Somerset and North Somerset.
Kate Barrington, Volunteering & Communications Manager at Age UK Somerset, says: “We are so grateful to have had the support of Rumwell Farm Shop during 2023. Like Rumwell, we are proud to be local and Somerset-based, and we both have a reputation for quality and great customer care.
“Our partnership resulted in more people learning about the services we offer to make later life better in the area and it also helped raise awareness and encourage people to join our amazing team of volunteers too.
“I’d like to extend a huge ‘thank you’ to all the staff and customers who have helped collect such a tremendous amount of money for us, which will make a real difference to the work we do.”
Rumwell Farm Shop is an independent, family-run, award-winning business owned by the Mitchell family. It was originally a potato store, when David and Anne Mitchell began selling their potatoes and free-range eggs at the gate more than 25 years ago.
Due to customer demand, the range of products soon increased, and the Farm Shop grew into the place it is today. David and Anne’s sons, James and Jack, are now also involved in the business, as well as their wives, Sophie and Donna.
The Shop has a traditional Butchery counter selling its home-reared and free-range pork and Rumwell Angus beef. Also onsite is the new, purpose-built Rumwell Orchard events space, a Delicatessen, Bakery, Jam Kitchen, Food Hall, Wine Cellar, Gluten Free Kitchen, Food To Go service and Gift Room.
In 2023, the farm shop picked-up Taste of the West Awards for its homemade products including six category Golds for its bakery-made sourdough loaf and rock cakes, its Butchery beef burgers – featuring its own farm Angus beef – and its lamb burgers.
The team also won gold for its gluten free bread, baked inhouse in its bespoke GF Kitchen, and its Countryman’s Pickle, made by its onsite Jam Kitchen team. It was commended for a further two products – the Bakery’s Biscoff doughnut and the Deli’s chilli and spring onion Scotch egg, using eggs laid by its farm hens.
To add to this, Rumwell Farm Shop received a prestigious Gold Award in the Farm Shop and category at the Taste of the West Awards.
It was then named ‘Champion’ Best Farm Shop at the south west Taste of the West finals in November 2023 and also scooped the top prize for its instore made Butchery beef burgers, using beef from its farm.
It was also a finalist in the Large Farm Shop of the Year category in the 2023 national Farm Retail Awards and won nine Taste of the West Golds in 2022 for its Shop, Café and products too. Its dry cured back bacon was given the title of overall Champion Bacon in the 2022 Taste of the West Awards as well.
The food prepared in the Café kitchen is sourced from the Farm Shop, the Mitchell family farm, which is just four miles away, and other regional suppliers. The Café kitchen has Coeliac UK’s Gluten Free accreditation.
For more information, please call Rumwell Farm Shop on 01823 461599 or visit www.rumwellfarmshop.com.
