Seed to plate

As a project lead for the ‘Growing’ project at Knelston School over the last 4 yrs (this year, working with ALN children who find it difficult to access the school curriculum as it currently is), I can see the nurturing of well-being, healing, belonging and identity all being beautifully played out in purposeful project work that lifts their spirits. 

The project strives towards growing food for a whole school shared meal, we call ‘Seed to Plate’, where the children can see and get involved with the whole chain of processes involved in food production. They harvest, prepare the food, sow the seeds, nurture the plants, prepare and nurture the soil, compost, weed and plan the growing season according to a set date for the ‘Shared Meal’. They also have individual challenges they set, eg. to grow an avocado tree or apple tree from leftover fruit or a watermelon.