Earlier this month, the Prime Warden, Simon Barrowcliff, met students and staff from two London secondary schools at Chapel Street Market in Islington, as they sold vegetables and herbs grown in their school gardens with support from charity School Food Matters.
The Year 7 students from Beacon High School and The Bridge Secondary School were taking part in the “Know Your Onions” programme, a food education initiative funded by the Fishmongers’ Company’s Charitable Trust. With expert support from School Food Matters educators, participating students learnt about gardening and planting vegetables in their school gardens. With many of the students living in homes without gardens, this was an eye-opening introduction to growing food. The programme also included cookery lessons, where students learnt to prepare nutritious meals using their produce and experienced preparing fish in a special seafood masterclass.
Market Day was the culmination of the programme, where students built their enterprise skills by selling their school harvest to the public at their own market stalls.
Sales were strong at the Chapel Street Market stall, with a bumper crop of vegetables including cucumbers, spring onions, green beans, potatoes and tomatoes, along with carefully packaged herbs and a variety of house plants also on offer.
The charity’s founder Stephanie Slater said: “We want every child to understand that food begins in the soil — not on a supermarket shelf. There’s no better way to bring that to life than giving children the chance to grow their own fruit and vegetables at school while sparking their entrepreneurial spirit and nurturing healthy eating habits and awareness about food waste. Market Day is showing shoppers the fruits of their labour.”
Market Days were also held simultaneously at street markets in Hackney, Camden, and Tower Hamlets, with stalls run by many of the other 10 secondary schools participating in the programme thanks to Fishmongers’ funding. All proceeds are being reinvested into the schools’ food growing activities or donated to Plan Zheroes, a food distribution charity.
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