Freedom

For Gino and his girlfriend Nicole, one of the most important key performance indicators under “Freedom” is to give people the chance to develop themselves. That is why Nicole decided to set up a care farm called de Meigaard. Care farming is combining care of the land with care of people, in a setting where they feel safe, respected and engaged in meaningful activity. The farms are used as a base for promoting mental and physical health through normal farming activity. Basically it is a partnership between farmers, participants and health & social care agencies, that develops people's potential rather than focusing on their limitations. According to Nicole, De Meigaard, is a calm oasis, a relaxed environment where people can be themselves and where there is no pressure from outside. The combination of natural environment, the orchards, the gardens, animals and the contact with the local population who visit the farm is an ideal mix where people can relax. The jobs include packing apples, accompanying customers who want to pick their own fruit, looking after the chickens and other jobs. Nicole is a very committed person “I have always wanted to help people who are less fortunate than ourselves and worked as a manager at a special centre where people with special needs take care of manual jobs like filling cartons etc.  The problem was that overtime the focus was more on getting the job done for the lowest possible cost and not on helping the individuals working at the centre.  That was not for me and therefore I started looking around and started making plans for my own care farm”.
Apart from the carefarm, Gino and Nicole are very active in the local community and regularly (together with other farmers in the area) organize activities.