RHS Welcomes New Scheme to Get All London Schools Growing Food
New project receives £804,994 boost from the Big Lottery Fund
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) welcomes a new project that aims to help every school in London become a food-growing school over the next three years. An £804,994 grant from the Big Lottery Fund will help deliver the ‘Food Growing Schools: London' programme.
The RHS works with more than 1,300 schools in London through its Campaign for School Gardening. This new partnership, led by Garden Organic, includes the RHS, Greater London Authority, Sustains ‘Capital Growth’ project, ‘Food for Life’ Partnership and Morrison’s ‘Let’s Grow’ campaign. The project plans to develop and enhance existing activity in order to embed food growing into every London school.
In 2011–12 the RHS was an Expert Panel member of the Defra-backed ‘Food Growing in Schools Taskforce’, which explored the importance of giving pupils the opportunity to grow food at school. The taskforce looked at examples of best practice and proposed a number of recommendations.* The ‘Food Growing Schools: London’ project is the first realisation of these recommendations and London will be a model for best practice. The ultimate aim is for all UK schools to be food-growing schools and to act as inspiration globally.
The first step will involve a survey of all 2,750 London schools to find out their current growing activity. Then the project will develop actions to support all London schools to increase the effectiveness of their food-growing activities and enhance levels of community engagement. As part of the partnership, the RHS will play an important role in recruiting schools, developing a volunteer network, providing resources and training school staff and teachers.
Sarah Cathcart, RHS Head of Education and Learning, said: “We are delighted that this project has received such a significant grant from the Big Lottery Fund. It will be crucial in helping the partnership led by Garden Organic, to achieve its aim of giving every pupil in London the opportunity of growing food at school. Through the RHS Campaign for School Gardening we support two thirds of all UK schools and more than half of all schools in London and we know that all these schools grow produce.
“Bannockburn Primary School, in Greenwich, for example, is a Campaign for School Gardening school where the RHS has helped teachers convert a neglected roof space into a large growing area to bring gardening to the lives of all its pupils. Growing produce is now a part of everyday life at the school. Pupils are directly involved in the growing process and so understand where their food comes from. Produce is used in school meals to demonstrate the value of good food for a healthy lifestyle, which is important to instil in children at a young age. The school also shares produce with the local community and sells it at Covent Garden Flower Market, teaching pupils important lessons about business, communication and teamwork.
“The aim of the new ‘Food Growing Schools: London’ partnership,” said Sarah, “is to expand on the brilliant work already been done in schools, like Bannockburn, across the capital and to recruit more schools so every London school pupil has the opportunity to grow food at school. It is so important for a variety of reasons that pupils get to grow food at school and the RHS has conducted a number of reports into its benefits to prove this.** Now London can be a model for best practice and we hope the scheme will be rolled out nationally.”
For more information about RHS Campaign for School Gardening, which is a free campaign open to all schools, visit: www.rhs.org.uk/schoolgardening