We plan on hosting a series of fun and educational school away days for primary school students in the borough of Ealing. We were kindly donated an unused kitchen garden which we have been transforming into a fruitful allotment. Now we need the infrastructure so we can host affordable workshops. Our focus is for students in low income areas to get the opportunity to get out of the city and into nature. The kitchen garden will host workshops to teach students how to grow vegetables sustainably and the joys of cooking plants based meals. The day will end with a beautiful walk of an ancient woodland. The project aim is to get students caring for the natural environment with hope this will inspire them to be more sustainable . What better way to do this than to teach them how to grow and cook their own food. We also want to promote healthy and sustainable eating - we will invite students to help us cook a plant based lunch on the fire in the woods using produce from the allotment.

What we'll deliver:

• 15 away days for schools - starting with Stanhope Primary
• 16m x 5m poly tunnel - this will be the inside workshop space. It will also be a home for all the yummy tomatoes!
• Potting tables and chairs - for the workshop stations
• Portable fire cooking station - a place where we prepare and cook lunch with the students over the fire
• Compost, compost and more compost - we will need 12 tonnes for no dig beds in the poly tunnel
• A percentage of transport costs for schools
• Pots, tools and goody bags
• Staff to run workshops

Why it's a great idea:

We'll provide: - inner city schools the opportunity to visit the countryside - teaching students the importance of caring for our natural world and how to lead more sustainable lives - students with first hand experience of growing and cooking vegetables. Ideally each group would visit us 3 times. -A broader and memorable learning experience at school - a chance for students to get more active and outdoors - promotion on how yummy, healthy and sustainable plant based meals can be! -a chance to look at different farming methods and learn about food production Gardening and being in nature has been proven to help red stress. In the future we would love to: -run loads more workshops -create a relationship between Hampshire and Ealing based schools so a sustainable community is formed that stretches over the UK -for natural studies to be included in the national curriculum - we want to start small by running these workshops and hope one day this could influence a change school policy

Steps to get it done:

• Building the workshop polytunnel and installation the workshops stations
• Building the fire pit cooking station
• Hosting the first workshop!
• First harvest with the schools!

Itinerary Example: 9.30 - Students arrive to site 10.00 - Introduction to kitchen garden 10.30 - Gardening workshops - this would depend on the time of year. Some example are: - Prepping the soil & regenerating soil structure, planting in the polytunnel, building bean pole structures, natural pest control and the best bit harvesting! 12.00 - 2.15 pm - Fire cooking and lunch in the woods - learning how to make a campfire & how to prep and cook amazing plant based food on the fire Example menu: vegetable skewers, home made humous & pesto/salsa verde, toasted flatbreads, rice salad 2.15 - 2.30pm - Woodland mindful meditation 2.30 - 3.30 pm - Woodland and Farm walk - highlighting the importance of caring for the UK’s woodlands. It’s also a chance to compare the local farm to the the kitchen garden. 3.30pm - Home time with take away goodie bag for planting at home. The workshops will be led by Hannah and Ross - all employees of Letting Grow have enhanced DBS checks.