one year on... - Islington Council

What did Edible Islingtonset out to achieve?(Objective)What has Edible Islington actually achieved?To enable schools toestablish their own foodgrowing programmeslinked to the nationalcurriculum and healthyschools initiative41 schools have been supported to establish their own food growingprogrammes through either large or small grants. These schools haveintegrated their growing work into their curriculum through varioussubjects and clubs including gardening, art, mathematics etc.In addition, six nurseries/childcare providers, three children’s centres,two universities and <strong>one</strong> college have also been supported to establishtheir food growing programmes. The Garden Classroom,an educational programme funded through Edible Islington,supported three schools over several months to do more foodgrowing and helped staff and children to integrate food growing intotheir work programme.In addition, an Edible Islington project run by Global Generation,an organisation that supports young people to play a part in creatinga sustainable future, engaged a large number of children fromschools, housing estates and hostels for the homeless in a foodgrowing project.To establish a continuingprogramme of foodgrowing support andresourcing promotingnetworking and skillssharing, ensuring longterm sustainabilityand legacyWe are immensely proud of what the Edible Islington projects haveachieved through the hard work, enthusiasm and commitment ofthe many groups involved. Although the funding has closed, we arekeen to ensure that the food growing projects set up continue to run,yielding a bumper harvest <strong>year</strong> on <strong>year</strong> and providing many hours offun and enjoyment.The Edible Islington Networking event held on 17 March 2011by Capital Growth, in partnership with Edible Islington, providedan opportunity for Edible Islington groups to network and attendworkshops on food growing issues. In addition, a number of toolshave been set up for Edible Islington groups to use for networkingand sharing skills, which we hope will ensure long term sustainabilityfor the project. These include the Islington Master GardenersProgramme, a map of Edible Islington sites and an Edible Islingt<strong>one</strong>-platform on the ‘Project Dirt’ website, for groups to communicatewith each other. More information on these and other supportavailable is outlined at the end of this report.By working in partnership with several projects and organisationsincluding Capital Growth, Groundwork, St Luke’s Centre and manyother local organisations, we have strived to ensure that Islingtonis part of, and fits in with, wider food growing programmes acrossLondon.5