With the impact of Covid beginning to wane, we at School Food Matters have been very busy, pushing forward with our food education programmes:
Healthy Zones
Our Healthy Zones programme continues in Southwark and Lambeth, and we have now started working with our first secondary school, focusing on developing school food policies to put the students’ health first. Our Healthy Zones team is also collaborating with eight schools to improve menus at after-school clubs and will soon return to working on breakfast clubs.
Free fruit and veg donations to a school
Abel & Cole launched a new charity initiative in January, donating one piece of fruit or veg for every single box sold for an entire year. We were lucky to be one of three charities benefitting from this fantastic offer.
In line with our mission to improve children’s health, we diverted all the fruit and veg on offer to Bacon’s College in London – one of our Healthy Zones schools. And, so far, the scheme is going brilliantly, with students opting for free apples and bananas in place of sugary snacks.
Young Marketeers
School Food Matters celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Young Marketeers summer sale. Our Young Marketeers sold their school-grown fruit and veg at London’s Borough Market, raising £1,132 for The Felix Project, helping to provide 6,792 meals for vulnerable families.
Our Young Marketeers programme also hit the road last year, with schools in Gloucestershire, the Midlands, Newcastle and Dorset growing and then selling their produce at local markets, raising £951 for excellent causes.
And we held our winter sale at Borough Market this month, which saw students selling homemade soup and freshly baked ciabatta bread, raising £482 for The Felix Project – enough to help provide 2,892 meals to those in need.
Breakfast Boxes
Thanks to the Betty Messenger Foundation, we were able to deliver Breakfast Boxes to more than 500 families impacted by the pandemic over the October half-term, followed by 770 boxes in Tower Hamlets ahead of the Christmas holidays.
Since the start of Covid, School Food Matters has delivered more than a million breakfasts to help struggling families.
Racing the Thames
In January, eight of us from School Food Matters took part in the Race the Thames challenge, which involved running, cycling, rowing and swimming the length of the River Thames to raise money for two excellent charities.
After seven days of blood, sweat and even some tears, we collectively covered the entire 346km distance, smashing our fundraising target, and raising £1,400 for London Youth Rowing (LYR) and the Da’aro Youth Project.
Looking forward to the rest of 2022
We’re looking forward to having more children take part in our upcoming projects. This includes our Fresh Enterprise and Honeybee programmes, and awarding more School Garden Grants.
This year also marks the 10th anniversary of Schools to Market, which thanks to funding from Garfield Weston, will allow students from five boroughs to experience the journey from planting a seed to selling their produce in a supermarket.
