Our ‘foodie’ Schools Project is about helping schools get food growing, cooking, trading and nutrition at their core, and in the long term, become the centre of a sustainable, healthy, inclusive, food community.
Read more about this on our blog here.
We also want to help schools build their own circular economies so will also be working on food waste including composting, and recipes to re-use leftovers instead of throwing them away.
This means using our Local Food Map to partner with local farmers and shops and even have a listing for the school if they want to sell their produce to local people or encourage volunteers.
Some of the barriers to overcome for this project, and initiatives potentially required, include:
This page will grow over time as we explore ways to overcome each barrier and to announce wins in this project.
Why Food Education |
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| Dr Jason O’Rourke from Washingborough Academy: Why Food Education has been central to what we do for 10+years | Ant and Shane Holland (head of Slow Food UK) Food education in schools is crucial! | Ant and Lesley McIntosh (Dartford Science & Technology College) Food growing for education, as well as produce for the schoolkitchen and community! | |
| Let’s help do what the kid’s want: grow food! | Multi-award winning ‘Allotment Project’ at Reepham High School & College | Eating Better’s video with Tom Walker from Hackney School of Food | |
Food Curriculum |
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| TastEd in 170 schools so far. Easy an really powerful, win win! | Ant chats with Tom Walker from Hackney School of Food about food & te curriculum | ||
Children buy-in |
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| Kids love growing food | Learning is easier if linked to food | Curriculum linked to the veg patch | |
| Wow, I can cook! | |||
Quick recipes for Kids |
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| Sustainable healthy food | Vegetarian healthy snack. A class can make these and sell them to other kids and teachers the next day! | Crickets eat waste veg peelings, we eat crickets as a great source of protein | |
Gaining buy-in and commitments from the head & governors |
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| The Head teacher really needs to buy-in | |||
Teacher buy-in |
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| Great to see teachers learning with the kids | Amazing RHS courses for teachers to gain knowledge and confidence | ||
Parents’ buy-in |
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| Get on local TV to get buy-in from locals | Encourage parents to join in as a community garden | ||
Growing space & What to grow |
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| Commercial Indoor Micro Greens, no need to add chemicals for school production! Delicious & healthy | Every school should have an asparagus bed. Low maintenance, high value to sell locally, super healthy, harvest in summer term and makes your wee smell! | Start small and build. Or get parents and locals to buy-in and help create the growing space and help with maintenance | |
| Creating a growing space can be part of the learning process. Get the kids involved in design | Growing potatoes in bags and harvesting from July til November. Great way to get buy-in from the kids and dinner lady/school chef | Every school should have a Strawberry Tower. Very little space needed, low maintenance as they regrow every year, kids love them, super healthy, harvest in summer term! | |
What to do in School Holidays |
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| Community asset and food resource | |||
Funding |
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| Sports grant, local sponsors, parent’s help…. | |||
Circular Economy, Composting, Wormery |
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| recycling water for your veg | Make your own wormery | ||
School kitchen, chef, catering |
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| What a satisfying job for a chef; Cooking for customers who have grown the ingredients! | |||
Community Building, local farmers & business |
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| Every school should have an Apple press to share with the Community | Find a farmer to chat to the classroom about food and farming | Sustainable, inclusive, caring communities built around food | |
Cookery equipment |
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| Much easier and cheaper than you might think | |||
Beekeeping |
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| Beekeeping in schools, fun and educational | |||
Come back often and / or bookmark this page to see what is new with this project.