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A Sheffield charity is set to make almost half of its staff redundant in an attempt to survive the cost-of-living crisis.
Heeley City Farm announced it would be seeking to make 18 of its 40 staff members redundant to keep the charity open.
In an announcement posted on the charity’s Twitter page, Dave Clarson, chair of the organisation, said an invitation to consider voluntary redundancy had been issued to staff, adding that “all options will be considered to avoid compulsory redundancies”.
According to the announcement, the decision is part of a new “financial rescue plan” which was backed unanimously by the board of trustees.
The announcement also said that closing down was among the options that the charity had considered.
Heeley City Farm was founded in 1981 and offers community services including training and education programs, heritage projects, placements for people with learning disabilities and food growing sites.
The charity also runs a café and a garden centre, the future of which is also under review according to the announcement.
The charity told The Star that the decision came as a result of rising prices, the end of government Covid support and business continuity funds, as well as the end of grants for food growing.
Clarson said: ““Like many local charities, we have a difficult road ahead of us. The Farm is rich with potential, but first our task is to survive. This means costs must be cut, and with deep regret for the people involved, some jobs will be lost.
“The café and garden centre do provide a community service, however, we also need our commercial services to contribute to the charity’s finances. A new approach is needed to address this, and we do envisage the café re-opening in some form during 2023.”