WHAT WE’RE DOING
We are launching the UK’s first Farm Bus to drive awareness and understanding of how our food is grown. Along with our partners, Arthur David, we are renovating a vintage double-decker bus into an interactive ‘mobile farm’, designed to travel to communities and schools.
OUR GOAL
To empower, inspire, and inform communities, taking the core values of The Pony on the road – sharing knowledge about where food comes from, healthier food choices, and promoting food literacy. Our visits will be informal with a huge emphasis on fun to encourage everyone to participate, chat to our volunteers and break down any barriers.
We believe that learning about food should be engaging, enjoyable, and accessible to everyone.
THE COMMUNITY
At The Pony, food and community are at the heart of everything we do, whether it’s serving delicious dishes in our restaurant, growing produce in the garden or teaching in our cookery school. We understand that not everyone can easily make it to us, so we want to take our knowledge, passion and resources out on the road.
Our existing community efforts across Bristol and Somerset over the last 18 years have made us increasingly aware of the issues surrounding food education. Our close work with Team Canteen and the Mazi project have shown us the impact community food initiatives can have and inspired us to create the Farm Bus.
HOW IT WILL WORK
The bus will visit 25 schools a year (as well as community groups) offering engaging, interactive and fun workshops, demonstrations and classes. Complete with a live growing system (hydroponics), chickens, planters, a demonstration platform, as well as kitchen and dining areas, it will have everything needed to inspire and aid learning, in a compact and mobile space.
The bus will offer a choice of programmes, tailored to a group’s wants and needs and relevant to the location, age of attendees and what produce is in season.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
We are raising £100,000 to launch the bus for Spring 25. We’re fundraising over the next few months through events and collaborations but would love and appreciate any help to hit our target. No matter how big or small, any help is hugely appreciated to help us get this project finished and out to schools and communities.
All funds will go towards the renovation, launch and roll out of the Farm Bus Programmes.
If you want to volunteer any of your time to help renovate or once the bus is launched, please drop us a line and we’ll be in touch!
THANK YOU FOR DONATING
Thanks to everyone that has donated so far. Crowdfunding is a major way for us to raise funds but we also have been doing lots of things offline too.
The total amount raised so far is over 30K.
Thank you to everyone!
MEET THE TEAM
Josh & Holly Eggleton
“It has been an idea for ages and it’s great to see this come to fruition. Immersing ourselves in the community is behind all we do. Seeing the bus busy and active, going out to suburbs and helping to alleviate food insecurities is important but we also want to keep this fun”.
Josh Eggleton
The Pony Farm Bus 