Grow Your Own Business - Autumn

GYOB activity pack cover page

Grow Your Own Business

Sow it. Grow it. Sell it! - Autumn Term

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.

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 eatin

GYOB Schools Activity Pack - Download

(5MB PDF)

What's inside?

Our free Grow Your Own Business pack includes links to enterprise resources, activity sheets, partner events, competitions, and top tips on growing, cooking and selling your school produce. It also includes advice on planning and evaluating your school enterprise project, health and safety essentials, fundraising, and working with your local community. And lots more!

Contents include:

  • Why Grow Your Own Business?
  • What to grow, cook, and sell
  • How to: Involve your local community
  • School food growing beyond Grow Your Own Business
  • Further Resources

Here's a sneak preview of what's inside the 'What to grow, cook and sell' section....

What to grow, cook and sell

Some simple ideas to help you get started with what to grow, cook and sell in autumn as part of your new school food enterprise, including:

  • Preserves and pickles - apples, plums and autumn berries
  • Sauces, seasoning and garnishes – saucy salsa verde, nasturtium seed capers, home made tomato ketchup
  • Access to growing cards for a wide range of fruit, vegetables, herbs and salads
  • Quick growing crops, ready in just a few weeks
  • Winter salad bags
  • Potatoes for Christmas!
  • Growing plants for sale
  • Seeds, seed packets, seed bomb, seed swaps
  • ‘Grow Your Own’ kits - pots, seeds, plant labels, and growing instructions
  • Uses for herbs - pot-pourri, lavender bags, cosmetics and creams, flavoured oils, herbal teas,
  • Growing through the winter, ready for spring

Partner school enterprise projects

  • Young Marketeers at Borough Market (School Food Matters)
  • Schools to Market at Whole Foods Market (School Food Matters)
  • Grow to Sell (Capital Growth) - suitable for secondary schools and above only.
  • Growing Enterprise (Garden Organic)
  • Teach a Man to Fish
  • School Farmers' Markets (Soil Association)

For information about all our project partners visit: foodgrowingschools.org/about/ourpartners

School enterprise stories

Be inspired by schools who are already growing their own businesses - read their stories!

  • Nightingale Primary, Hackney - from beginners to winners in just one year! Edible Garden Award 2014 winners for their Enterprise Food Garden (Garden Organic for FGSL. 4.MB Pdf)
  • Lowther Primary School, Richmond  - Community allotment project, involving parents, staff, students and the school chef (Garden Organic for FGSL. 3.5MB Pdf)
  • Chisenhale Primary - growing food for school meals, family cooking sessions and produce sales (Pdf. School Food Matters).
  • Phoenix High School - selling to the local community and for school cooking lessons. White City. (Pdf. School Food Matters).
  • Hitherfield Primary School - Lambeth - working with local businesses in Lambeth (Link. Garden Organic for FGSL)
  • Lambeth - a borough wide approach to food growing
  • Growing Enterprise project - young people with Special Educational Needs growing, marketing and selling organic products, photo above (Pdf. Garden Organic).

Share your school's story

We'd love to hear about all your school food growing and enterprise activities:

  Tweet your news: www.twitter.com/FoodGrowSchools hashtag #GYOBusiness

Flickr  Share your photos: www.flickr.com/groups/foodgrowingschools

  Pin your ideas: http://uk.pinterest.com/foodgrowschools/grow-your-own-business

 

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