Mayor launches competition to get London's school kids growing their own food

Blue Peter gardener lends support for campaign to recruit young growers

London's primary school children are being encouraged to grow their own fruit and vegetables by the Mayor, Boris Johnson, through a new Capital Growth schools competition launched today (Thursday 21 January).

The Mayor has written to all 2300 plus primary schools in the capital urging them to create thriving food gardens. Schools with existing gardens will be encouraged to start growing food, expand their plots or start planting food from scratch. The competition has the support of Chris Collins, the Blue Peter gardener, who will visit one of the winning schools.

Judging London's top school gardens will be Rosie Boycott, the chair of London Food, Peter Holman, CEO of London in Bloom, Katie Law from the Evening Standard and a representative of London Food Link, the charity that manage Capital Growth.

There are three categories: 'Bugs and Slugs' (a garden focused on biodiversity); 'Collect and Create' (a garden encouraging the reuse and recycling of 'waste' items); 'Climate Cool' (a garden designed to cope with a changing climate). The top food growing schools in each category will win a visit by a celebrity gardener, cash prizes of £500, plants and a wormery. There will also be prizes for 12 runners up including fruit and vegetable packs and gardening tools. The first 50 schools to register will receive a Spring sowing selection of organic seeds from Duchy Originals.

Boris Johnson, said: 'What better way to bring alive elements of the school curriculum than through hands - on experience in growing your own grub. There is much top notch work taking place by green fingered teachers and pupils across the capital already, which I salute. We want to help cultivate this growing appetite for locally grown food, reward the top performers and bring more schools into the Capital Growth fold. Whether tending plots in some paint pots or on the perimeter of a playing field, food growing in our schools will help make London a more pleasant place whilst giving our kids a lifelong skill.'

Rosie Boycott, who launched the competition by helping pupils from Ambler School in Finsbury Park plant their new garden, said: 'It has been shown that kids who grow their own go on to eat more healthily and appreciate good, nourishing food. Many kids in London don't know the magic of seeing a seed flourish into an item you can eat, or even the names of common vegetables. This is what we want to help schools conjure up to create a city of micro farms.'

Chris Collins, said: 'I've been fortunate enough to engage children in the fine art of gardening for a number of years now. It is a subject that comes naturally to them. Let's take advantage of this and use the vehicles of growing food and the school environment to improve their lives, both in terms of the food they consume and their physical and spiritual well being.'

By entering the competition schools can help meet Capital Growth's target to create 2012 community food growing spaces by 2012. Schools will receive a welcome pack, access to curriculum links, lesson planners, volunteers, practical support and advice, help with getting discounts on gardening items and free materials plus opportunities to apply for small grants.

Capital Growth was launched in 2008 by Rosie and Mayor, Boris Johnson, to boost grow your own in the capital. Managed by London Food Link, part of Sustain, it now has more than 160 spaces already being cultivated across the capital in a diverse range of places including schools and canal banks, roofs, private gardens open to the community and parks.  Capital Growth is also working with large organisations such as Transport for London and British Waterways along with borough food growing programmes such as Edible Islington.

Prizes and support for the competition are being provided by London in Bloom (http://www.londoninbloom.co.uk/); Garden Organic (http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/); the Royal Horticultural Society (http://www.rhs.org.uk/); Fiskars (http://www.fiskarsgarden.co.uk/) Wiggly Wigglers (http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/); School Food Matters (http://www.schoolfoodmatters.com/) and Rocket Gardens (http://www.rocketgardens.co.uk/)

 

For more information or to register, visit: www.capitalgrowth.org/schools

 

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Notes to editors:

• Capital Growth is funded by the Mayor of London and by Local Food, part of the Big Lottery Fund's Local Food Scheme. It is managed by London Food Link, part of the environment charity, Sustain. The programme was awarded a Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Commendation this year for its success in getting communities growing.
• Boosting the amount of locally grown food in London has a range of health and environmental benefits, such as improving access to nutritious, low cost food in urban areas and helping to increase flood protection.  It also reduces food miles and cuts carbon emissions. There is rising interest in self-grown food and inner London boroughs have waiting lists for allotments that can be decades long.
• Schools need to have registered with Capital Growth to enter.
• The competition is open to all London primary schools that have set up a food growing space since January 2009; those who are expanding an existing food growing project; and schools that wish to start new food growing project.
• Each school can enter only one category and submit only one application.
• The closing date for competition entries is 18th June 2010.
• The Capital Growth team will carry out desktop shortlisting at the end of June 2010 followed by visits to shortlisted schools.
• Announcement of category winners will be in July 2010.
• Since the 16th century, Fiskars has been dedicated to producing products unrivalled in development, design and quality. As the number one global brand of garden tools, Fiskars continues to lead the way in developing precision garden tools, specially engineered to be powerful, lightweight, ergonomic and easy to use. Fiskars actively supports gardeners of all ages. Not only is gardening a great way to get children active but the reward in growing their own food will help encourage a lifetime of pleasure and healthy eating.
• Rocket Gardens whole-heartedly supports the Capital Growth initiative and is excited to be providing its instant gardens to turn London's unused space into productive community areas. Rocket Gardens believe that growing your own food can make a lasting difference to all our lives and so we've made it quick and easy for everyone- even those with no gardening experience- to start growing. The Capital Growth project ties in perfectly with Rocket Gardens' 'Dig for the Future' schools campaign, which aims to get 1 million children growing their own food by the end of 2010.

For media enquiries please call Nicola Dillon or Hilary Merrett in Mayor's Press Office on 020 7983 4755/4066. Numbers not for publication.

For out of hours media enquiries please call 020 7983 4000.

For non-media enquiries please call the Public Liaison Unit on 020 7983 4100.