StockbridgeOnline

STC expanded its activities with schools in Spring 2009  by piloting a business and enterprise scheme. This involved schools growing bedding plants using STC facilities.

Six local schools were selected and a short presentation made to teaching staff and Year 5 or 6 pupils. The children decided which bedding species to grow from a list of 8 plus a few vegetables. They decided how many trays to grow, pricked the plug plants out at school or STC with the plants grown on at STC for 4-6 weeks. During the growing period they would have to develop a marketing strategy after doing some market research, set prices and get orders!. STC provided free plug plants and seed but charged the schools for trays, pots, compost and rent for the glasshouse area used.

The scheme was a great success with several schools taking it very seriously and setting up Board of Directors. Most schools made between £300 and £500 profit after deducting costs. The children then decided how to spend the profit.

Based on this initial success we will be expanding to 10 schools in 2010 and are encouraged by the very positive feedback from parents and schools.

Potting plants in mid April

2 weeks before dispatch

The last week in June and first week in July saw over 600 local school children descend on Stockbridge. These single visits are aimed at schools across Yorkshire who would not be able to visit STC as part of our other school projects due to distance.

Food Live saw children harvesting strawberries, new potatoes, lettuce, radish, courgettes and broccoli to take home. They also had a tour of the glasshouses and picked mini plum tomatoes and cherry to taste plus hearing about how cucumbers are grown. All children also went away with a punnet of cherry tomatoes donated by English Village Salads. In addition to harvesting the fresh produce they also made butter, milked a cow (wooden!), cooked healthy pizzas and carrot cake buns. On the first 2 days they also learned about Biofuels from staff at the Novel Non Food Crop Centre at York.

The Big Harvest also involved children harvesting crops plus 7 groups cooking on the Yorkshire Forward Cooking Bus. The Cooking Bus is a fantastic resource for the region and the third time that it has been to STC. The children cooked with the produce harvested in the field and shown how to handle knives safely in the kitchen. This was followed by a fruit taste challenge to see if they could identify all the fruit put in front of them, talk about seasonality and to see how far some fruit has to travel to get on the supermarket shelves. The event was aimed at getting children interested in growing their own produce and hopefully we have started this journey.

The revolving Green Fund, a partnership between the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Carbon Trust funded Salix Finance, has awarded a £25M funding package that will be used to support energy projects at 44 higher education establishments.

Of particular interest are the three project at the University of East Anglia (UEA), Harper Adams University College and Lancaster University where £10M will be shared to fund renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.

UES will use the funding to support the setting up of a biomass energy centre at its Norwich Campus; the first combined heat and power biomass gasification installation in the UK. Agricultural college Harper Adams located in Shropshire is using its share of the award to help develop an anaerobic digestion project which will use both agricultural and food waste. Lancaster University is using the funding to install energy saving measures that will cut its electricity consumption.

Harper Adams

With the aim of becoming largely energy self sufficient, Harper Adams is developing a 350KW anaerobic digestion (AD) plant to convert waste from the college farm together with food waste into energy. This project alone is claimed to save 11,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

The AD project is in addition to a biomass CHP generator already in use by the college. Forestry residues, wood chips, wood pellets and energy crop biomass are used to generate 100W of electricity and 25W of heat. The project cost a total of £500,00 and has been operational since December 005.

S&A produce has sponsored Leominster Infant School’s brand-new allotment, which was officially opened a fortnight ago.

The UK’s largest strawberry grower recently installed the allotment along with a new tool shed on the school’s grounds, which will give pupils an opportunity to plant and grow their own fruit and vegetables.

To mark the official opening on May 22, Richard Westwood, Mayor of Leominster, cut the ribbon and declared the S&A allotment open and ready for use.

Rebecca Edmonds, S&A’s PR and planning manager, said: “As a local company, supporting the local community is very important to us and we have thoroughly enjoyed our recent partnership with Leominster Infant School.

“Healthy eating is a major issue these days and I hope this allotment will provide the children with an ideal opportunity to grow and eat their own fruit and vegetables.”

Meta Philpotts, headmistress at the school, added: “On behalf of the school, I would like to thank S&A for its kind donation and sponsorship of the allotment and for organising such a good opening ceremony. All the children thoroughly enjoyed the event on Friday and they are very excited about being able to grow their own food at school. The allotment will go a long way to promoting healthy eating within our school.”

Westwood said: “This is a great opportunity for local children. Encouraging healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle is very important, especially given recent concerns over child health. The installation of this allotment is a great step forward for Leominster Infant School in its campaign for healthy eating.”

The site works closely with local primary schools and provides facilities that they can use to grow crops and learn about food production. It also welcomes visits from secondary schools to learn about agriculture, horticulture and environmental issues.

The first STC Schools Project was funded by Selby Leader +. The project allowed over 1500 primary aged pupils to visit the site and grow their own vegetable and salad crops. The scheme ran from 2003 to 2005 and was a great success

After the funding ended the schools were still keen to come and from 2006 they have been funding the coach transport. As part of STC’s commitment to education and promoting the industry we part subsidise the project costs. We employ part-time teachers to deliver the project with all activities linked into the National Curriculum

During 2006 it is anticipated that 14 school groups will come at 4 different times of the year to grow a range of crops on their own allotments including: potatoes, carrots, coloured lettuces, coloured courgettes, French beans, peas and sweetcorn. The pupils sow, plant and harvest the crops as well as looking at pests under microscopes – very popular with the boys! Any spare plants and all the produce grown gets taken back to school

We also offer schools the opportunity to have single visits and arrange practical activities and then deliver the plants back to school when they are ready for planting. School gardening clubs make use of this free service.

We are grateful to the support of many companies who have been involved in the project: Rijk Zwaan Seeds, Yorkshire Bank, Yorkshire Agricultural Society, Bulrush Horticulture, EVS, FACE (Farming and Countryside Education) and Tozers Seeds.

Please contact us if you want to come and see what we can offer.