We have been through a busy year. New organizations joined us, so we started our gardening project with three times as many volunteers, in order to put fresh fruit and vegetables on the table for people in need.

Based on the experience of a successful past year, we knew that we are able to bring out more of the project, the only thing we need is a close-knit and effective group of participants. And that group has come together!
This year, the BBM Seeds 4 Hope core team got bigger: apart from Viki Zsolnai and Endre Kovács project coordinators, Luca Eszter Petruska and Betti Balassa joined the team (along with her family). 

Luca was helping out with communication and administrative tasks, and Betti used her many years of gardening experience as the project’s new manager. Amongst other tasks, she calculated the number of seedlings necessary and decided which plants were to be grown side by side. It’s worth knowing that she is an integral member of the Kerthatár Community Garden too. We got to know Luca, Betti, and Betti’s family this year, and it’s lovely to know that we can count on them. Expertise, communication, and busy hands! We would like to grab the opportunity to thank them for their hard work and joining us in our vision. They brought new energy into the group dynamic. 

Six new organizations and fifty volunteers joined the Seeds 4 Hope project this year. We made 28 new seedbeds, used 7,700 liters of soil and we raised more than 400 seedlings. 

Putting more effort into the preparations greatly contributed to our success. With the help of our gardener, we created two planting handbooks, one for the volunteers and the other for the shelters. We provided a workshop for the volunteers along with the seeds so they will be better skilled to raise healthy plants. 

Months before the seedlings were transplanted we prepared the scrapwood beds for growing early sow vegetables. We needed a lot of pallets, soil and seeds to sow. We are grateful for the donation of soil and seeds to Oázis Gardening. We can thank the pallets to Lush, Zöldbolt, Complexpress Logisztika Kft., and HARTMANN-RICO Hungária Kft. The latter helped the project with extra seedlings and volunteers. Without the help of our sponsors’ generous donations, the project couldn’t develop at this pace. 

Of course, even during the growing period, we kept in touch with our volunteers, who let us know about the progress of the plants. Meanwhile, Betti gave them expert advice. 

We worked with already participating shelters and new ones. We would like to give a special mention to the Red Cross shelter on Madrid street, where a real community has formed around the project. A Gardening Club was founded and they even started courses in managing the household, so the shelter’s clients will make the best use of the vegetables.

We are very proud of the BMSZKI department on Táblás street, where the Budapest Bike Mafia is planning to open a Social Recreation Center. Spending quality time together and gardening will be an integral part of this new place. The transplanting event on Táblás street and the future plans of the Mafia were covered in the media by 444.hu. 

It’s important to keep people inspired and the greatest joy is seeing children participate and work in the garden together with us. This year two children’s homes joined the project: branches number 1 and 2 of the Bolyai Center.  

The volunteers of the EON Hungária Zrt. and the employees of HARTMANN-RICO Kft. gave us a hand in raising the seedlings. We would like to thank them for their tremendous help! We hope they will join us in the coming year too!

We are grateful to Bolyai Childcare center No. 2 for being able to spend two weekends with the children because gardening together is the perfect occasion for them to be outside and learn new things. 

The best experience of all was tasting the produce we had grown together with months of work. 

Our plan for next season is that we will put even greater emphasis on the therapeutic benefits of gardening to enrich our clients’ lives. The shortage of available resources and funds didn’t make it possible to involve all of the institutions that wished to join the project this year. We do hope that next year we will be able to accommodate more participants and we will work hard to find more sponsors and volunteers for the cause.

It was great to work with you all and to see the project grow. We hope to continue to develop our collaboration next year, making the project better. 

If you want join or have a question, write us! seeeds4hope@bikemaffia.com

The team of BBM Seeds 4 Hope