"A Garden for All Seasons"
We have been working hard for some time to achieve Healthy Schools Status and were awarded this last term thanks to efforts to bring about real changes to the food we offer students. Government guidlines have of course directed our changes but we have found these to be focussed mostly on what you cannot eat and not what's good for you. Our analogy would be that no-one goes to a shop because it doesn't sell something and so we focus our efforts away from "you can't have this" or "we can't sell that", into more productive promotion of fresh, healthy, appealing food that our students want to buy. We completely reviewed our catering provider and decided to move away from our current contractor to one which sources fresh meat from Smithfield's and fresh fish from Billingsgate, which we believe will dramatically improve our offer.
Foremost among students ideas was to create a school garden to allow them to "create" for themselves the food that will be served in the dining hall. We have had great success with the "Ready, Steady, Cook" approach with students feeling more comfortable trying new dishes when they have prepared the ingredients themselves. We want to take that idea to the next level by engaging the students in planting, tendering and growing the ingredients from scratch, and then helping in preparing the end product.
We have managed to identify a spare piece of land within the school grounds which we would like to convert to the new garden. Although the space is the right size, the quality of the soil is below par and will need to be overhauled. We will also make use of a derelict greenhouse which we have acquired and can now incorporate into this project. We started a gardening club a few years back and had great support among the students, however, we were held back as finances did not stretch to more than a few window boxes. We see this project as a big stepping stone to creating a real legacy for future generations.
Donors will of course be recognised in the dedication ceremony and invited to the opening of the new garden next year.
