Jamie’s Farm, Lewes

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Sam Maynard

Sam can normally be found making sure that the whole Jamie’s Farm team, our visiting teachers, and most importantly our visiting young people, are well looked after and have everything they need.

Sam loves getting stuck in to everything on the farm, from making bread to chopping logs to chasing escaped goats – he enjoys that no two days on the farm are ever the same, and that there’s always a new challenge to tackle. He’s also always on the lookout for new jokes and riddles – especially farm-related ones!

One of Sam’s favourite parts of working at Jamie’s Farm is visiting young people in school after they have been to the farm – it’s always wonderful to hear about the memories that have been made, to see the pride that they have in their achievements, and to witness the new self-confidence in each young person who has been to the farm.

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Charlotte Streeter

Charlotte is the Farm Manager at Jamie’s Farm Lewes , which means she is in charge of looking after all the livestock and all of the land. Depending on the day or the time of year, you might find Charlotte caring for cattle in the barn, milking the cow, shearing sheep in the sun,  tending to newborn lambs in spring, or herding the cheeky pigs and goats – no two days are the same in her job.

Charlotte really enjoys showing young people how to farm and care for animals, work hard, use tools and connect young people to where their food comes from.

Charlotte loves dogs, and being outside as much as possible!’

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Katie Meanwell

Katie is the Designated Safeguarding Lead for Jamie’s Farm. Along with the team of DSLs across the different sites, she is responsible for overseeing the safety and wellbeing of our visiting young people. She and her fellow DSLs provide guidance and support to staff and communicate with schools to ensure that all young people are appropriately supported both during and beyond their visit to the Farm.

Katie joined the charity after teaching English and Drama at St George’s School in Maida Vale, one of our longest partner schools. She helped set up Jamie’s Farm Hereford in 2014 and enjoyed many memorable years as Therapy Coordinator there, before moving to East Sussex in 2019 to bring the Jamie’s Farm methodology and magic to our Lewes farm. Here, she leads many group meetings and has reflective conversations with young people who visit, supporting them and their teachers to piece together pathways for future success.

When Katie is not at the Farm, she can be found with her young family, exploring the South Downs and other sites of Sussex!

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Clare Martin

Clare loves the variety of daily life on the farm and is always keen to find excuses to leave the office to get involved with morning feeding rounds, sheep moves and the daily walks. Her favourite view of the farm is from the top of the South Downs, and she enjoys sharing this with groups each Wednesday (along with some delicious homemade baking).

She values the opportunity her role offers to meet new people (from young people and visiting staff, to volunteers and members of the community) and when not on the farm, or overseeing the plan for the week, she can often be found at partner schools and organisations, reconnecting everyone to their farm experience.

Clare loves the collaborative environment on the farm and the opportunity it provides for young people (and her!) to constantly learn and develop new skills, such as milking Penny our Jersey cow or helping deliver a lamb.

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Felix Haxby

Felix is usually found out in the workshop or the woods. He loves working alongside young people to help create, fix, or improve things at the farm. He believes it’s important to foster creative problem solving and to give things a go, even if we’re not completely sure how they’ll end up. Felix likes working in environments that are dynamic and collaborative, and the farm feels like a great place for that.

Felix also enjoys spending as much time as possible outside with the animals on the farm, and the morning feeding rounds are a highlight of the day for him. Encouraging people to become more aware of food production systems and what they involve is something he’s passionate about, and he loves having conversations about this with visiting young people. Most of all, since joining the farm, Felix has enjoyed spending less time on his phone, being outside every day, creating new connections, and taking on big challenges.

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Tim Grewcock

The Farm Kitchen is where Tim likes to be, which is a good job as he’s responsible for making sure everyone gets fed after all their hard work outside. His favourite part of the job is connecting with young people through their food choices, and helping them gain confidence in cooking. His kitchen motto “Anyone can cook” is taken from his favourite food related film, Rataouille.

Another key part of running the kitchen smoothly is down to the tunes the young people bring to create the perfect cooking playlist.

His absolute highlights on the farm are the sunny months in East Sussex. With the BBQ or pizza oven cranking, he loves helping our groups create amazing feasts complete with fantastic produce from our farm and garden. It’s Field to Fork dining without the price tag!

Tim has worked for Jamie’s Farm for 6 years, making up one of the original Jamie’s Farm Lewes crew. Over that time he’s learned so much about working alongside young people and the important role food plays in making people feel at home. He’s constantly impressed by the hard work that young people put into making food for each other. Refugee and unaccompanied young asylum seeker groups have shared delicious recipes from all over the world with him, showing how food bonds them to family and roots in their home countries.

Bring your recipes, ideas and music and lets get cooking!

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Laura Johnson

Laura likes being extremely silly and having loads of fun.  She also loves a deep chat.  On the farm, Laura can usually be found walking a dog; making pizzas in our wood-fired oven; helping Charlotte out with the cows and sheep; chopping logs; or trying really, really hard to win at games (while pretending not to be competitive).  It’s impossible to lose her because she’s very tall and sings literally all the time.

Laura first experienced Jamie’s Farm as a Residential Volunteer in Hereford on a memorably snowy week in 2019.  She was surprised to be welcomed back after throwing lots of snowballs at people.  Since 2020 she has been a full-time Therapeutic Coordinator and Designated Safeguarding Lead in Lewes.  As the charity’s UASC Champion (2021-2024), Laura significantly developed our provision for young people with experience of displacement.  She also chairs our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee (2022-present).

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Jessie Thomas

Jessie has always felt happiest being busy outdoors and is passionate about the transformative impact nature can have on us all. She is not designed to sit still and needs to focus on doing one thing at a time! She takes care of the garden space on the farm and loves to grow both food and flowers. Jessie celebrates that if things don’t work out then the following season brings a clean slate to start over, ultimately a seed wants to grow! Jessie is out in all weather and makes even the hardest job fun.

Before Joining the farm Jessie knew very little about working with animals, she has loved learning about being a farmer but identifies with young people who may be nervous. Jessie now loves feeding all our animals.

Jessie loves long walks, early mornings, chocolate for breakfast, cheese at night and anything beach related.

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Katie Thompson

Katie can most often be seen taking care of our herd of horses: Zara, Toffee and Eddie. From brushing and braiding, feeding and exercising to creating toys out of recycling, brewing horsey herbal teas or playing ‘hoofball’ (not to mention mucking out wheelbarrows of poo!) Katie loves hanging out with our horses and especially loves seeing how the horses love hanging out with the young people that come to visit.

If she’s not in the horse yard, Katie might be sneaking cuddles with the other farm animals, winning games of Dobble or disturbing the kitchen team with her singing whilst making endless cups of tea! 

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Riley

Having been through the Jamie’s Farm programme himself, Riley understands firsthand that feeling of arriving on the farm for the first time. He is looking forward to helping make the young people feel welcome and exploring every adventure the farm has to offer with them.

Riley loves music and all things outdoors. He enjoys working alongside the animals and getting to know their personalities. He hopes to build up his farming skills and is especially excited to get stuck in with the hard work and joys that the lambing season brings.