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Growing to Love

Investment project code: 13

Estimated Price

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Description

We will build on the success of our Grow Strong 2022 pilot project where we collaborated with VegPower, Edinburgh Council, Unwins Seeds, Westland and Masterchefs of Great Britain to get 5000 children growing tomato plants. At harvest time, we hosted a cook along at the Edinburgh Community Food Warehouse with chef’s from Masterchef’s of Great Britain. The project was promoted via STV News and local TV Chef Tony Singh.

Our proposed project, ‘Growing to Love’ for 2023 with VegPower is about building on the excitement and momentum from our 2022 pilot project and further enabling children not only to eat more vegetables but also to grow them and help contribute vegetables to the food system themselves.

We will work with VegPower to design ‘Grow Boxes’ for delivery to Edinburgh primary schools. These will be ready-to-go packs for classes containing compost, propagators, seeds and a resource pack with inspiration and lesson plans for teachers.

A Food & Health Development Officer will attend each school to deliver two educational sessions teaching about planting and caring for seeds. These sessions will be designed to educate on sustainability, the importance of a local food system and a plant-based diet. We will incorporate learning on climate change and how growing, staying local and our diet can all have a positive impact on the environment. Additionally, all children will have access to local apples at each session to enjoy nourishing snack.

We will also create 3 community growing based videos on the benefits of growing fresh produce, eating more locally grown plant-based foods and an energy efficient cooking recipe video. We will collaborate with community gardens to partner in the social media campaign and attend school sessions. We want to connect young people with growing communities around the city. Grow the growers for the future and reduce food insecurity by connecting growers to share surplus produce.

Location: City of Edinburgh

Proposed on behalf of: Edinburgh Community Food (ECF) is all about helping people enjoy delicious, fresh, healthy food and making sure everyone in our city has access to an affordable, healthy diet. We use food as discovery and as an educational resource, to shape healthier lifestyles. We tackle health inequalities in low-income communities in Edinburgh through our Food and Health Development and Promotion work, including cooking and nutrition courses, health information presentations and delivery of Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland accredited courses. We collaborate and co-ordinate community, schools, industry, and citizens to build a greener city creating healthier sustainable futures for all.

• Build relationships between neighbourhoods
• Plant-based diet
• local food system
• community gardens
• growing community
• climate change