Getting Food, Farming and Sustainability in Schools

Yesterday I attended a Parliamentary Roundtable hosted by Roz Savage MP that brought together the partners of Soil Ed – an initiative to embed food, farming, and sustainability into the National Curriculum. What started at a petition to government followed by a White Paper on its responsibility to young people is becoming a movement – one focused on giving kids the knowledge and skills to face a complex and uncertain future.

The UK is the 6^th largest OECD economy by GDP, yet has some of the highest inequality, lowest educational attainment – especially among working class white boys – and lowest social mobility. Our domestic food production is low and that makes us vulnerable. And we would be short-sighted to believe that things are going to get easier for young people.

To be clear: These things are all connected. Food security is National Security. And history is a teacher.

It was a joy to connect with our partners @soil_ed – a brilliant group of change-makers and educators. We all know that teaching kids about food and farming is a no-brainer. It ticks so many boxes for curriculum and the priority areas of government. But regardless of logic and how good this is for kids, society or the future, the government is a big machine. It will take time. In the meantime, I am convinced anew and steadfast in my belief that community-led grassroots initiatives are the way forward. We must continue driving projects that connect, enfranchise, grow, feed, and teach people of all ages to build local level resilience.

We are so proud at SGFP of the work we have done with students, teachers and staff at schools across the county through our Schools Food Web project – focused on decarbonising schools using food as a lever for change. We know the impacts that food education has on students and the school community. We, and our partners across Soil Ed have been doing it in dozens of different places and formats. We shared these experiences in Parliament at the gracious invitation of Roz Savage MP - but we need all MPs onboard… and parents, and kids, and schools… so that ministers see the value in a meaningful curriculum update – one that would be transformational for the next generation.

At Shropshire Good Food we’re building food system resilience - connecting the dots and lighting up like a switchboard of food action - from farms, to restaurants, businesses markets, councils and organisations across our county and bioregion. Where central government is a juggernaut that is slow to respond to crisis, local groups are nimble and can mobilise to meet challenges in creative and context-relevant ways.

This is why the national food strategy has recognised food partnerships as boots on the ground for place-based food system change. We know our networks, our communities, our organisations and food champions working in the food system.

But we don’t receive government support to do what we do. We are a Community Interest Company, reliant on grants. Behind the scenes at SGFP we are small team of food systems experts with a range of subject expertise, and we’re pushing this work on because we know it is absolutely essential.

If you want to help us build food resilience in Shropshire communities and you can support our work, please get in touch to help fund our work or to be a community food champion.  While we work towards food systems change from the top down, we need to be actively building up grassroots capacity for a resilient county.

Daphne, Partnership Lead

Shropshire Good Food Partnership

daphne@shropshiregoodfood.org