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London schools get enterprising with School Food Matters

School Food Matters Market Day in Stoke Newington, with with Hoxton Garden Primary. — School Food Matters Market Day in Stoke Newington, with Hoxton Garden Primary.

School Food Matters are one of six fantastic Food Growing Schools: London partners founded in 2007 by parent Stephanie Wood. Over the past 10 years they have made their name as experts in school food enterprise projects, working with thousands of pupils in schools across London.

Enterprising school food projects

In March and April 2017, Know your Onions, School Food Matters’ new secondary school project progresses with 15 gardening sessions delivered by our partners, Garden Organic. These sessions will inspire students to get involved in food growing, think about where their food comes from and learn useful skills. In April, these schools visit a local market garden where they can see professional food growing at scale, within the boundaries of London. These visits help the students to contextualise their food growing in the wider environment and think about the effects of global food production on the environment. Know your Onions is kindly supported for 3 years by the City of London Corporation’s charity, City Bridge Trust. Read more about the progress of the programme, including students learning to cook their produce, and sell it at their local street market: Know Your Onions.

The Schools to Market programme, led by School Food Matters in partnership with Whole Kids Foundation, is now entering its fifth year and kicks off in March 2017 with an assembly at 20 participating schools. This year five Whole Foods Market stores are taking part: Richmond, Fulham Broadway, High Street Kensington, Cheltenham and Giffnock. The assembly not only launches the programme but also looks at the purpose of it; to take children on a journey from seed to supermarket, to teach them about fresh, healthy food and to improve their nutrition and wellbeing. This way the whole school can benefit from the assembly and not just those children chosen to participate in Schools to Market. Keep up to date with what’s happening when at: Schools to Market.

Other enterprising School Food Matters projects include: Young Marketeers at Borough Market and Fresh Enterprise: School Food Matters Enterprise Projects

For ideas on how to start an enterprise food project in your school visit the Food Growing Schools: London website: Grow Your Own Business

Know Your Onions

Linking in beautifully with FGSL’s Autumn Term Grow Your Own Business activities, November sees the launch of a brand new enterprise project for secondary school students, Know Your Onions.

Led by our fantastic FGSL partner, School Food Matters, the programme will support schools develop food growing spaces and, with the help of a professional chef, give them top tips on how to cook what they harvest.

Students will also get the chance to see food growing at scale with a visit to a Market Garden in London in April to develop ideas on how to make their school gardens more productive and planet friendly.

At the end of the school year, students will harvest and sell their produce at their local street markets to raise money for more food education activities. School Food Matters will be working with three schools in each of the Boroughs of Camden, Croydon, Sutton, Waltham Forest and Enfield, and a total of 15 schools.

To find out more visit: Know Your Onions

Sow it. Grow it. Sell it!

Young Marketeers Winter Sale – February 2017
School Food Matters have many years of experience running school food enterprise projects. Among them are their fantastic Young Marketeers (with Borough Market) and Schools to Market (with Wholefoods stores) projects. Next up, their Young Marketeers Winter Sale at Borough Market in February 2017, fr a second year running. Four schools in Southwark will be creating soup from surplus veg and bake bread with the team at Bread Ahead to sell to the public alongside market traders with all money made going to Fareshare.

Inspired to start your own school food enterprise project?….

Grow Your Own Business 2016 – this Autumn Term with FGSL
From strawberry jam to tomato ketchup, and the great British apple to winter salad bags. With our expert guidance, learn the secrets to starting your own school food growing business, raising money for your school, developing employment skills and selling healthy, home-grown food in your local community. Join in with Grow Your Own Business by downloading our free schools activity pack.

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Schools Marketplace at City Hall – tomorrow!

Dormers Wells High School, Ealing. Winners of the Best Stall at the FGSL Schools Marketplace at City Hall in October 2015.

Schools Marketplace, City Hall – Thursday 13 October 2016

The day has nearly come for the sixth FGSL Schools Marketplace at City Hall. Students from 10 schools in Croydon, Ealing, Greenwich, Haringey, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Richmond and Southwark will be taking part, including:

Athelney Primary School – Lewisham
Charlton Park Academy – Greenwich
Dormers Wells High School – Ealing
Elmwood Primary School – Croydon
Holy Trinity C of E Primary School – Lewisham
Kelvin Grove Primary School – Lewisham
Reay Primary School – Lambeth
Rokesly Junior School – Haringey
Rotherhithe Primary School – Southwark
Trafalgar Infant School – Richmond

To celebrate all this fantastic growing, we will be awarding prizes during the day for Best Dressed Stall, Most Enterprising Product and for the People’s Choice of their favourite stall.

Join us from 11am – 2pm on the Lower Ground Floor (Map area) to try out some tasty school-grown produce and Autumn treats. The event is organised with project partner, Capital Growth.

Our main FGSL Celebration Event will also be taking place upstairs in London’s Living Room at City Hall, from 10.45am – 1.30pm, with a chance to visit the Schools Marketplace during the day.

City Hall, The Queen’s Walk, London, SE1 2AA

See you there!

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Enterprising Croydon Schools hold Marketplace

Thursday 20 October 2016, 1.00pm – 2.00pm. FREE ENTRY.
Croydon Clocktower, Katharine Street, CR9 1ET

On Thursday 20 October, enterprising schools in the Food Flagship borough of Croydon will be hosting their very own Schools Marketplace at the Croydon Clocktower. Their second local Schools Marketplace coincides with this Autumn term’s Grow Your Own Business activities which see schools all across London growing, harvesting, packaging, promoting and selling in their local communities.

The lucky Croydon schools will show off their school grow produce from 1-2pm, selling everything from locally grown fresh fruit to vegetables, herbs, plants, jams and chutneys, all on sale for competitive prices! The Schools Marketplace is free to enter and open to all. So roll up, roll up and do your shopping in Croydon, but be careful to get there quickly before you miss out on all these edible treats. You may even find something tasty for your lunch there too! For more information about this event please email

Don’t miss out on another exciting opportunity – the sixth FGSL Schools Marketplace at City Hall taking place on Thursday 13 October 2016, and our fantastic FGSL Celebration Event, hosted by the GLA in the prestigious London’s Living Room at City Hall on the same day.

Visit our Training and Events page to find out about more school food growing and enterprise activities taking place near you this Autumn.

Back to school top tips for Autumn

The Summer holidays are over and we’re back to school. The mixture of sunshine and showers over the holiday period has been kind to the crops but with a new group of enthusiastic reception students and excited returning student gardeners, what tasks should you put to the top of the list this term?

Harvesting

You may still have some fruit and vegetables growing in your plots. Over the next couple of weeks it’s time to dig most of them up and start planning a tasty meal. Vegetables like carrots, potatoes, onions and beetroot can be harvested along with the last of the fruits like raspberries, blackberries, apples, pears and tomatoes. If you can’t use them all straight away, our friends at Garden Organic have some great advice on storing your produce. Or you could try preserving them in jams, chutneys, pickles and juices.

Even better, why not encourage your enterprising youngsters to turn their produce into cash? Enterprise Events held across London offer the opportunity to sell at markets or stores, but students can also set up their own pop up market at school to give parents and the local community a chance to taste their gardening successes.

The brand new Grow Your Own Business themed activity pack for 2016 is packed full of ideas and tips to help your students to Sow It. Grow It. Sell It! The free to download pack includes links to enterprise resources, activity sheets, partner events, competitions, and top tips on growing, cooking and selling your school produce, and much much more…

Sowing and Growing

It’s not just about harvesting though, make sure you plan your plot to get the most out of the Autumn and Winter seasons. September is a good time to try some late sowing of quick growing plants – leafy varieties like spring cabbage, pea shoots, pak choi and winter lettuce can be ready in just a few weeks. Other seeds to try in September include chard, rocket, kale, spinach and mustard.

And as a final late autumn treat, put some seed potatoes in a large pot or sack, keep in the warmest part of the garden and transfer to a greenhouse once it starts to get a bit nippy outside. With a bit of luck, they will be ready to harvest just before your school Christmas meal!

Celebrating our success – a City Hall event

FGSL growing activities at the Edible Garden Show. Photo: Jane Baker/Garden Organic

We are delighted to announce that we will be celebrating the success of Food Growing Schools: London (FGSL) with a special event in the London’s Living Room at City Hall on Thursday 13 October, from 10.45am to 1.30pm, including lunch.

The event will be hosted by the GLA and opened by the Deputy Mayor of London Joanne McCartney. It will be a fantastic opportunity to bring together people from across the capital that have been part of our journey and that join us in our ambition to get every London school growing their own food!

Coinciding with our final Schools Marketplace in partnership with Capital Growth at City Hall, everyone coming to the event will also have the opportunity to visit the 15 stalls held by children on the Lower Ground floor. As always, schools will showcase their food growing by selling school grown produce and products such as chutneys, jams, herbs and winter salads. What better way to start our FGSL celebration than to see enterprising schools at work! The Schools Marketplace takes place as part of Grow Your Own Business activities this Autumn term.

Speakers at the celebration event include Chris Collins (Broadcaster and Head of Horticulture at Garden Organic), James Campbell (CEO Garden Organic), Professor Judy Orme MFPH (MSc Health Promotion), and Mat Jones MPhil, BA, PG Cert (University of West England) who will share the great successes of Food Growing Schools: London to date.

It will be a chance to look at why food growing is important and the transformational impact it can have on children and schools that get involved. We will hear first-hand from teachers and children about the benefits and why they think EVERY school in London should grow their own food.

To find out more and to book a place visit Eventbrite.

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Sixth Schools Marketplace Returns to City Hall

Schools Marketplace City Hall. Photo: Jane Baker/Grden Organic

Our sixth (and final!) School Marketplace in partnership with Capital Growth will be held at City Hall on Thursday 13 October, from 11am to 2pm. All schools within Capital Growth network* are invited to take part, but you must sign up quickly as there are only 15 spaces available.

The FGSL theme for food growing this term is Grow Your Own Business and the Marketplace is a fine example of schools bringing that theme to life! Schools will once again be joining us to show off and sell their home-grown produce and products, such as jams, chutneys, herbs and winter salad bags.

To celebrate all this fantastic growing, we will be awarding prizes during the day for Best Dressed Stall, Most Enterprising Product and for the People’s Choice of their favourite stall.

We will also announce the winners of our FGSL Schools Survey prize draw, with prizes including a meal for two at Wahaca worth £50 and a visit from the FGSL team to give one-to-one gardening support. Last chance to win by completing our survey.

We were delighted to have the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan visit our Marketplace event this July. He visited every single stall and said, “It’s great to see these young people growing their own grub and developing entrepreneurial skills.”

Our final Marketplace promises to be just as special, coinciding with a Food Growing Schools: London Celebration Event taking place the same day in London’s Living Room at the top of City Hall. Every delegate will be visiting the Marketplace before the event – no doubt making it our busiest schools market ever!

To apply: Simply download, complete and return the application form to Maddie at by Wednesday 28 September:
* If you’re not yet part of the Capital Growth network it’s free and really easy to join so get that done today and then you’re ready to apply to be part of the Marketplace too.

Discover more FGSL Training and Events this Autumn Term.

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Sow it. Grow it. Sell it!

Schools Marketplace City Hall. Photo: Jane Baker/Garden Organic

From strawberry jam to tomato ketchup, and the great British apple to winter salad bags – young entrepreneurs are bringing harvest time to the city. From September to December 2016, schools across London are rolling up their sleeves to take part in Grow Your Own Business, a city-wide celebration of school food growing, enterprise and learning, creating young entrepreneurs and healthier local communities.

With the expert guidance of the Food Growing Schools: London partnership, students can learn the secret to starting their own school food growing business, raising money for their school, developing employment skills and selling healthy, home-grown food to and with their local community. Download our FREE schools activity pack to find out how.

The highlight of the term sees the Mayor of London’s Food team opening the doors of the prestigious City Hall, for the Schools Marketplace, on Thursday 13th October 2015 from 11am to 2pm. The event is organised with project partner, Capital Growth. Enterprising schools who plan for a bumper crop can apply here to be one of only 15 schools to have a free marketplace stall by Wednesday 28 September.

We are also excited to be hosting our FGSL Celebration Event, from 10.45pm to 1.30pm upstairs in the Living Room at City Hall. This is an invitation only event. To register your interest in attending, email:

Schools that succeed in securing a stall at the Schools Marketplace will be entered into our Marketplace Competition, celebrating the most enterprising schools with prizes being given out on the day. Categories will include the Best Dressed Stall, Most Enterprising Product and the People’s Choice of their favourite stall.

We will also announce the winners of our FGSL Schools Survey Prize Draw, with prizes including a meal for two at Wahaca worth £50 and a visit from the FGSL team to give one-to-one gardening support. Last chance to win by completing our survey.

Why Grow Your Own Business? Grow Your Own Business offers schools the opportunity to learn about enterprise through growing and selling food, giving children the chance to learn new business and employment skills, across a range of subjects (e.g. maths, technology, PSHE). Enterprise activities can engage students of all ages and capabilities, even those children who aren’t interested in the garden or healthy eating.

Download our FREE Grow Your Own Business 2016 schools activity pack.

Share your enterprise stories and tweets here: www.twitter.com/FoodGrowSchools #GYOBusiness

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