Paul Wiggins tells us how his work teaching on the Food Forest Garden elective at Sussex, helping with community volunteering and supporting underrepresented students is connected – and how spending time in nature can have a positive impact. Find out more and explore how you can get involved.
I have several different jobs, all of which complement one another. I am the Practical Tutor on the University’s Food Forest Garden module, helping students care for the garden on campus. I work for Brighton Permaculture Trust, helping volunteers from the University and beyond plant and care for community orchards, and I have my own gardening business specialising in fruit tree services and education.
I also work in the Widening Participation team at the University, managing our Student Ambassador Programme. The programme employs current undergraduate students to work on Widening Participation events like campus visits, subject tasters and university fairs. The events aim to support young people from underrepresented backgrounds, so we actively seek to employ ambassadors who are themselves from underrepresented groups such as care experienced young people or refugees and asylum seekers. I manage the programme and work with colleagues to recruit, train and support the ambassadors throughout their employment with us.
I love to do work that educates people on how to care for trees and to grow their own food. It’s an everyday miracle that you can plant a tree that will bear hundreds of fruit, year on year, throughout your own life and beyond and I love to share that with others. I also love interacting with students. The Food Forest Garden module I teach on is an elective, so we have students from all different disciplines which makes for a really great dynamic.
Spending time in nature in a purposeful way grounds people in a place, whether it’s caring for a tree, putting up a birdbox or harvesting fruit. I think fruit tree care is a really wholesome activity, and it seems to be something that people enjoy. It’s a hopeful act. I see people becoming more connected to where their food comes from and develop an understanding of how integral the health of their immediate environment is to their own wellbeing.
I started off my career in youth work for an education charity called IntoUniversity. After working in the field for six years, I moved into higher education outreach and then about six years ago I retrained as a gardener specialising in fruit tree care. Most of my training was with Brighton Permaculture Trust and once my courses were completed they offered me a job. After that it was a natural jump to try and combine my background in education with a newfound love of orchards.
I’ve worked with the Sustainability team to plant a Sussex Heritage Orchard on campus. We’ve planted some rare variety apple trees, all of which have been traditionally grown in the county. In the supermarket we have about eight different apple varieties available to buy but historically there were over 2,000 different types of apple grown in the UK. If we don’t plant and care for those types of trees (and eat their apples) then those varieties will be lost forever, along with their stories and flavours. The orchard is a living library of fruit and by a nice coincidence it’s located right behind the Library.
Staff and students can get involved in planting and growing on campus and in our local community. Students can sign up to the Food Forest Garden elective in their second year and learn to plant and care for the incredible garden at Northfield. Staff can help out in the garden at the annual volunteer planting da y and you can register your interest by contacting me at: p.wiggins@sussex.co.uk. You can also get involved with care of the Heritage Orchard by contacting the Sustainability team. Brighton Permaculture Trust is one of the University’s charity partners so you can use your staff volunteering days to spend time helping out in one of their amazing orchards.
Find out more about the Widening Participation team and our Access and Participation Plan, which outlines how we are working towards equality of opportunity for all students.