Ipswich School are an amazing example of how a school have taken the Foodshare project and made it their very own. Each year they have successfully built further on their success and continue to inspire students within the school, their thriving community, charities they support and most importantly other school looking to start their own Foodshare scheme. With the support of the Friends of Ipswich School, they are demonstrating what can be achieved when a team of focused and philanthropic individuals see what is possible.

The team at Foodshare HQ take our hats off to their efforts and enthusiasm, and can’t wait to hear more exciting news on the development of their programme. Well done everyone!

Read more about their success here:

http://friendsofipswichschool.com/2013/05/07/foodshare-team-receives-another-grant-for-expansion/

If you could help run a stand at any of the shows below, please contact us today.

“In Key Stages 1 to 3 pupils should be taught progressively more demanding practical knowledge, skills and crafts, working in fields such as:

Food and Cookery: to learn about food and, where possible, plan and prepare healthy, wholesome dishes, following straightforward recipes and using a range of common ingredients and techniques

Horticulture: to cultivate plants for practical purposes, such as for food or for decorative displays”

For more details and to read the full consultation please visit:

https://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/n/national%20curriculum%20consultation%20-%20framework%20document.pdf

This is out for public consultation, with deadline for response 16th April 2013. Subject to final decisions and parliament, final version will be published in autumn 2013 and come into effect in Sept 2014.

We encourage you to respond to the consultation as every response counts!

Even a Muntjac deer destroying the brand new greenhouse didn’t stop Ipswich School pupils’ enthusiasm and determination for their Foodshare project, which has run at the independent school in Suffolk for two years.

“We wanted to give growers the opportunity to redistribute excess produce during the growing seasons in a way that enabled charities to benefit and reduce food bills,” explained Senior Deputy Head, Darren Ayling, when asked why he set up the Foodshare group.

Seven pupils aged 14 to 16 have spent two hours every Thursday afternoon strategically planning and managing resources. They have also encouraged growing not only in the school community, but also within the three Ipswich-based charities which the school project is helping – all with the aim of reducing food bills and reducing food waste.

The fruits (or vegetables!) of the group’s labour have supported L’Arche Ipswich, a small charity which helps those with disabilities to live and work alongside those lucky enough to have full health, The Ipswich Umbrella Trust, which supports the homeless and vulnerable, and St Elizabeth Hospice, which strives to improve the lives of people living with a progressive illness.

In 2010, Mr Ayling launched the Foodshare group as part of the school’s Thursday Activities programme in which pupils are encouraged to dedicate time to community projects. In the early stages, the group followed the Foodshare model, raising the profile by using posters and school assemblies to get the whole school involved.

The ‘donation stations’ have been essential to the group’s success, enabling pupils, parents and staff alike to donate their excess produce at easily accessible locations around the school.

The first major milestone came when the group identified an East Anglian farmer, Richard Winch, who allowed them use of a field of vegetables, which contained 70kg of savoy cabbages and leeks. Of course, these donations have many benefits, but they don’t come without problems, most significantly the issues of transport and facilities. Being a small group in a school, there is no transport easily available except school minibuses, which didn’t mix well with last winter’s snow, and, unsurprisingly, there are no processing facilities.

But, the team didn’t let this dishearten them. Eighteen months in, 170kg has been donated to us and was then distributed, equalling an astonishing £200-worth of produce. And it doesn’t stop there. In November 2011, in a bid to continue supporting their Foodshare charities through the natural drop in available produce during the winter (during the “vegetable gap”), the team rolled out a Christmas card competition in which pupils summited their winter scenes from previous years to feature on Christmas cards. Over £400 was raised from the sale of these cards for the Foodshare charities. Plus the team organised a “Great Foodshare Cake Sale!” in school, raising £210 through the sale of homemade cakes to pupils and staff over just forty minutes, with profits going to the Ipswich Umbrella Trust, and a plant sale, selling a variety of rare vegetables – including striped green tomatoes called Tigerella – cultivated by the Foodshare group from donated seeds –raised a further £60 for the charities.

The school already had a strong relationship with local charities through its existing projects and work within the wider community, but this has certainly strengthened the relationship for both parties. So the benefits to the local charities are clear, but what about the benefits to the pupils themselves? Skills identified include teamwork and business experience, as well as baking and packing cards! And the pupils’ view is that it’s “fun”, “enjoyable”, and “most of all rewarding to be part of a scheme which does so much for those less fortunate in the wider community”.

Five top tips from the Ipswich School Foodshare Team

1. If you don’t ask you don’t get – many of the donations we have received have been actively sought and a direct result of the ideas brought about by members of the team.

2. Don’t be disheartened if things don’t go as well as you’d hoped.

3. There is no such thing as a bad idea – many of our ideas seemed ridiculous at first but, with some careful thought, they became immensely successful. Our Christmas card competition seemed a far-fetched idea
for a Foodshare group, but turned into one of our most successful ventures!

4. Work as a team – many ideas only work effectively when everyone works together.

5. Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty – the biggest rewards have come from the tasks which seemed the most challenging- such as digging out vegetables from a snow-covered field

I am pleased to announce that today the Taskforce has published it’s findings in two major reports (click to view or right-click to save):

1) Food Growing in Schools Executive Summary

2) Food Growing in Schools Main Report

I am also delighted that Foodshare’s work has been featured prominantly throughout the reports including a wonderful case study.

The report has an encouraging foreward from Caroline Spelman – Secretary of State for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Please do distribute either or both reports to everyone who will be interested in the findings.

SUMMARY:

The Takforce report found that food growing in schools:
• Encourages and facilitates learning – particularly in science

• Builds skills, including life, enterprise and employment related skills

• Improves awareness and understanding of the natural environment

• Promotes health and well being in relation to diet and nutrition

• Supports school improvement and development

• Strengthens communities and interaction

Top line report recommendations:
• A national campaign celebrating food growing in schools

• A policy emphasis on food growing in schools

• A food growing in schools online hub

• Business commitments to support food growing in schools

• Promotion of food growing by school leadership teams

• Improved links between food growing in schools and food-related careers

Stats and Facts:

General
• 80% of schools grow food (80% of early years, 86% of primary and 72% of secondary schools)

Benefits
Food growing in schools:
• Raises achievement

• Schools cited the following as motivations for growing food in their school: 68% – supporting the outdoor curriculum, 57% – supporting the science
curriculum, 39% – supporting the food technology curriculum.

• Scientific understanding, numeracy, literacy, and language skills are all enhanced through food growing,

• Supports life skills acquisition

• Life skills including financial literacy and enterprise, skills for employment and communication and interpersonal skills are enhanced

• Improves motivation and behaviour – children and young people arrive early to school and leave late, there is increased attendance and greater completion of homework.  There is also less disruptive behaviour, in and out of the classroom.

• Promotes good health and well-being through improved diet and nutrition, increased understanding of healthy lifestyles and improved self-esteem and self confidence

• 73% schools cited teaching children and young people about nutrition as a motivation for food growing, 68%, giving them skills for a healthy adult life and 33% encouraging exercise.

• Improved understanding of food and nutrition, increased willingness to try fruit and vegetables and increased consumption of fruit and vegetables (and take up of school meals where food grown is incorporated into school catering) are all impacts of FGiS.

• Children and young people have increased self-esteem and confidence, as well as a sense of pride and belonging in their school and community.

• Helps schools develop and improve through enabling delivery of a positive whole school ethos, facilitating pupil voice, and supporting the engagement of parents, families and the community.

• 25% of the top 100 performing schools (based on sustained improvement for period 2007 to 2010) are Food for Life Partnership schools.

• Ofsted reports were “more than twice as likely to give FFLP Flagship primary schools a rating of ‘outstanding’ across 10 criteria for inspection compared to the period before programme enrolment”

• Creates benefits for the community – Schools and the wider community share resources, skills and experiences.  Creates opportunities for different parts of the community to interact, promoting greater understanding and improving relations.  Increases access to fresh fruit and vegetables.  Helps build community networks involving businesses, charities, individual volunteers etc.

Barriers/Success Factors

• School leadership is crucial if food growing is to be embedded in the school and have an impact for all members of the school community.  Food growing should be an integral part of the school ethos, prioritised across the curriculum, and have appropriate resources allocated to it.  However:

• In only 34% of food growing schools is food growing part of a whole school policy

• Food growing is frequently planned into lessons in only 49% of schools (of these 44% are primary, 34% secondary and 21% early years)

• Only 26% of schools that grow food involve all of their pupils (the same number involve less than a quarter of their pupils)

• 36% of schools cited lack of personnel to supervise activities and lack of personal to coordinate activities as a barrier to food growing.

• Teachers need the support and skills to be able to integrate food growing into their teaching practice (not all teachers need food growing skills per se, but you do need a critical mass that have them).  30% of schools say that difficulty synchronising the curriculum with growing seasons is a barrier to food growing.  46% say lack of time in the curriculum is a barrier – it need not be with improved skills and knowledge.

• Schools (and their wider communities) need access to resources, both material and human- from growing spaces and tools to gardening expertise and advice, and lesson planning and curriculum integration resources.  33% of schools cited a lack of material resources asa barrier to food growing

• Working with the community increases what can be achieved, opens up access to resources and helps reinforce learning that takes place in schools.   Only 29% of schools said that they hade received support from businesses, and 20% from charities. So greater scope for engagement and collaboration.  (NB seems likely to be  under reported given numbers of schools on food growing charity and business databases).

You have probably read about Foodshare in the Volunteering section of your new “Together We Can” Book. We are delighted that you are ready to get your wellies on for Foodshare to help produce fresh produce to local charities as well as helping the environment.

This special Foodshare Girlguiding section will give you lots of ideas for inspiring projects you can do. We’ll keep updating it, so make sure you bookmark this page and visit often. To keep up with all the latest exciting Foodshare news, don’t forget to visit our Foodshare Facebook group.

Foodshare projects can be carried out by Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Seniors. Volunteering and starting your own Foodshare group is one of the most rewarding projects you can do as not only will you learn loads, but you’ll also be helping people in need within your local community.

So, before we get to our exciting Girlguiding Projects, here’s a little more about Foodshare.

WHAT IS FOODSHARE?

Foodshare is charity that is passionate about growing food, caring for the environment, reducing waste and most importantly helping to feed people in need within your local community with fresh, yummy healthy food!

We started out as a little idea in 2009 and have since grown and grown like Jack’s beanstalk! Everyone is going Foodshare mad! There are now thousands of school children “Growing To Give” as well as many allotments around the world donating their surplus produce to feed homeless people, Children’s Hospices, the elderly in Care Homes and many others.

The world has gone Foodshare mad! Foodshare has been all over the TV and in the Media. You can find out more here.

However there is still much more work to be done! And that’s why we are excited to be working with you and your amazing Girlguiding organisation!

So, let’s talk about our great Girlguiding Foodshare projects:

PROJECT 1:

The Girlguide Foodshare Bed

Do you have a spare piece of land where you meet which could be converted into a vegetable bed? Growing for Foodshare starts by planting one seed. You’ll need to care for your bed, water it and picking the weeds regularly, but very soon you’ll have some amazing vegetables which you can harvest.

Donating Your Food
Whilst you are growing your food, you’ll need to think about a charity close to you to donate the food to. Make sure they have a kitchen and feed people as part of their charitable work. You can talk with the chef to organise a place to drop-off your food throughout the growing season. The closer the charity is, the better and if you can deliver your produce on foot you’ll have grown food that has “zero carbon miles”. That means your food has not used any of the earth’s resource in transporting it, How amazing is that!

Recording your Harvest
Make sure you weight  and record everything you harvest. You can them let us know how much you have grown and we’ll add it to the Foodshare Totaliser, telling you how much the food you have grown would have cost the charity to buy in the shops. It’s just like a giving the charity a monetary donation but you have given them so much more – the healthiest local produce they will have ever tasted!

Planning Ahead
At the end of the harvest season, you need to close your Foodshare Bed for the winter, and start planning what you want to grow for next year. Ask parents and local allotment holders if they can keeps some seeds for you, or why not let some of your vegetables “go to seed” which means you can collect seeds for your next year’s Foodshare project. Maybe you might want to extend your growing area for next year? Or plant a few small fruit trees? The sky is the limit!

Celebrate Your Successes
Don’t forget to document your Foodshare project with lots of photos. Remember to make a Foodshare Photo Journal to document your success. Make sure to include photos of you:

- Creating your bed
- Sowing your seeds
- Caring for your plants,
- Showing off all the lovely food you’ve harvested!
- You delivering the food to the charity
- The meals prepared with your produce.

Maybe you can even get to meet some of the people who will enjoy your food and learn about their life? Get permission to send them to us at Foodshare and you could get a big feature on Foodshare! We always love to hear your stories.

COMING SOON…

PROJECT 2

The Foodshare Grow-Cook-Share Project

PROJECT 3

The Girlguide’s Foodsahre Surplus Drive

The Duchess of Cambridge

We are delighted that the Duchess of Cambridge has chosen to become the Royal Patron of the East Anglian’s Children’s Hospices (EACH), which includes the Milton Children’s Hospice where the Foodshare story began. In choosing her very first charity to support, the Duchess privately visited the Milton Hospice in November 2011 and announced today that she will take an active role with the charity. The Milton Hospice was originally opened by Princess Diana in 1989.

Milton is a small village on the edge of Cambridge, England which is the birthplace of Foodshare. Foodshare originally started when surplus produce was donated by a group from the local allotment to the Milton Hospice to help provide fresh produce to their kitchen and reduce spiralling food bills. Inspired by their efforts, Milton Primary School became the first Foodshare School, with pupils growing food specifically for the Hospice in Foodshare beds within their school grounds.

The children, aged four to ten, grew over £500 of fresh produce in their first year and the success of the project inspired the idea for the national Foodshare School Programme. The school and allotment continue to deliver freshly picked donations to the Hospice daily throughout the growing season, so far delivering over £4,000 worth of produce since 2009.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFGxxaeNE9I

Watch ITV Feature on Foodshare and the Milton Children’s Hospice

The Hospice has a dedicated kitchen with full-time staff who cook meals for the children and their families every day. They rely solely on public donations in order to operate. With increasing food prices and tougher economic times, Foodshare not only wanted to support the Hospice by helping to reduce it’s food bills, but recognised that Foodshare Produce (locally-grown, mainly organic, freshly-picked) is the healthiest food the Hospice could ever have. Up until that point the Hospice relied solely on food sourced from supermarkets. The beauty of the Foodshare project is that produce is usually harvested, delivered, cooked and eaten on the same day, with Foodshare volunteers making daily deliveries for eight months of the year. The food is grown less than a mile away and often delivered on foot or bike, resulting in a zero carbon footprint.

A spokesperson from St. James’s Palace said:
“The Duchess of Cambridge is very much looking forward to being officially involved with East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices, meeting its staff and the young people with whom it works.

“The Duchess was very impressed when she visited EACH recently and how innovative and special the charity is. The Duchess considers it an honour to be associated with Each and its work.”

Graham Butland, EACH chief executive, said: “EACH is honoured and extremely proud to have The Duchess of Cambridge as Royal Patron. Having our work recognised in this way is not only a tribute to our staff and supporters, but a huge boost for the children, young people and families receiving our care and support. The Duchess’s support will help us increase the awareness and understanding of the full range of services we offer children and families, and really celebrates the great work being done by all children’s hospices across the UK.”

– ends –

The Foodshare Vision
Our vision is for every school to become a Foodshare School, growing and supporting their local-chosen charity as part of our national programme. We believe that by creating a new generation of what we call “Food Philanthropists”, children will learn three essential life skills:
(1) Learning how to Grow Food
(2) Caring for the Environment, helping to create a more Sustainable World and;
(3) Caring for and Supporting their Community.

The Foodshare Effect
We have seen phenomenal results of the Foodshare programme in schools. Here are examples of just five:

(1) Letting Children Experience the Joy in Giving and Sharing
Fooodshare teaches children about philanthropy and sharing, but more importantly letting them experience the wonderful feeling of nurturing something from seed and sharing the harvest with people who really benefit from the healthiest food they can ever eat.

(2) Supporting Those in Need and Learning About The Lives of Others
We have seen how Foodshare gives schools the chance to become integrated with local charities and learn about what they do. When children deliver their produce they often get to visit the charity. For example, children have been given life-changing experiences such as tours of the inside of Homeless Shelters. They also develop an interest in what the Charity does and the Foodshare project is often the catalyst for forging a life-long relationship between the school and the charity. We’ve also seen charities visit schools, giving assemblies and on one occasion, a group of children from a Hospice and their carers visiting a school with a huge THANK YOU card they made. They were then invited on a tour of the allotment, seeing where the food they were eating was grown.

(3) Giving Children Responsibility
The ‘Harvest Heroes’ project gives children a new found responsibility as they take care and nurture their own Foodshare plant, knowing their efforts are helping to nourish those in need in their community. It moves food growing from the “Classroom bean plant experiement” to a real and essential school learning activity.

(4) Changing Schools from Top to Bottom
We’ve also seen how the “Foodshare Effect” changes schools from top to bottom, from assembly themes, art displays, harvest festivals, fundraising, not to mention all the academic benefits, such as planning, maths (weighing, collating).

(5) Healthier Diets and Less Food Waste
We’ve found that when children grow their own food they are more willing to each vegetables and also less likely to waste food they are given to eat, having understood the time, effort and care it takes to grow their own.

Foodshare Fundraising
Foodshare recently launched the “Foodshare 50″. We are looking for 50 philanthropic individuals or organisations to help fund the national rollout of Foodshare Schools programmes in UK, Canada and the US. To find out more, please visit:
http://www.foodshare.co.uk/cms/2011/06/calling-all-philanthropists-join-the-foodshare-50

If you are interested in volunteering for Foodshare, or are associated with a local school or allotment that would like become part of Foodshare programme, please visit:
http://www.foodshare.co.uk/cms/volunteer/

The Foodshare Story (www.foodshare.org.uk):
Foodshare was launched in 2009 in the village of Milton. Cambridge by Mark Desvaux & Dan Spencer, who were wanted to share surplus produce they had grown. The whole allotment joined in and after collecting and donating over £1,000 of fresh produce to the Milton Children’s Hospice, the local Primary School were inspired to start growing food for the Hospice directly. The Foodshare School programme was born.

After an appearance on Radio 4 Gardener’s Question Time, Foodshare was launched nationally with over 250 charities signing up in the first two weeks to become “Foodshare Charities” and beneficiaries of locally grown produce. Foodshare began to spread and over 7,500 school children nationally began “Growing to Give”. As well as the ‘Growing to Give’ project, Foodshare also launched ‘Harvest Heroes’ where school children collect surpluses from their locality, and in 2011, the Grow Cook Share Day launched, hitting national BBC headlines. Foodshare were central to the setting up of a Government-support Taskforce on Food Growing in School which it is a member.

More on East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices:
East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) supports families and cares for children and young people with life-threatening conditions across Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk. The charity provides care and support wherever the family wishes – in families’ own homes, in the community or at one of their hospices – with the challenges that having a life-threatening condition can often bring. The range of support includes short break care, specialist play activities, music therapy, hydrotherapy, parent groups and siblings groups, care at the end of life and bereavement support for all family members.

To find out more and support the Hospice, please visit:
http://www.each.org.uk

To read more about the Duchess of Cambridge and her support for EACH, please go to:
http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/mediacentre/pressreleases/the_duchess_of_cambridge_takes_on_four_charity_patronages_1891084297.html

Find out more about Girlguiding UK at http://www.girlguiding.org.uk/