Help launch a primary school community food garden

Aim

Help inner city children & families get into growing their own organic food, support their wellbeing and build community health & resilience

ABOUT THE COMMUNITY ROOF GARDEN

The Visionaries has the privilege of being based at School 360, Big Education's newest primary school in Stratford, East London.

As part of our residency we are helping to bring nature and sustainability into the heart of the school. We are in the process of setting up a gardening club for the children and parents to get involved in on a weekly basis.

We have ambitious plans to turn part of the school’s rooftop into a flourishing community garden, for the children and their families to enjoy. We need your help purchasing all the gardening equipment we need to get the project off the ground.

As well as providing an exciting after school project and space for the children and their families to enjoy and connect with nature, the food that is grown will become available for the children, parents and school to use, promoting localised food systems and the power of food sovereignty at a young age.

Every Thursday after school we’ll head up to the roof and co-create this incredible space together. We are right at the start of this journey and we need your help to turn our dreams into a reality. Your support is essential to us being able to launch the project in a few week's time, following the February 2022 half term.

As well as looking after the growing garden year round, we will light fires, make hot drinks, share delicious snacks and learn all about food growing and sustainable living. We hope you’re as excited as we are about what this space could become!

THE NEED

School 360 is based in the heart of East London, an increasingly urban sprawl, with little access to wild spaces. Children in the area, particularly those from low-income families, are limited in how much they are able to meaningfully connect with the natural world, learn about sustainable living and develop a connection with the food they eat.

Many of the families do not have space to grow food at home, nor have the means to buy organic produce from whole food shops. This project will bring the community together to demonstrate the transformative potential of community food growing.

As you can see from the photos, we've already got a few raised beds installed by the building's developers. This is a start, but we need your help to purchase all the equipment we need to rewild the roof and turn it into into an abundant growing space run by the children and families from the school.

WHAT WILL YOUR MONEY BE SPENT ON?

We have budgeted an equipment list and now need your help to crowdfund the money to purchase it all. Here is an itemised list of what we will buy;

• Gardening utensils (kids' gardening gloves, plastic trays (assorted sizes), buckets, ceramic plant pots (assorted sizes), plastic saucers, hand forks & shovels, potting trays, wooden trellises, bamboo canes, plant labels, secateurs, pruners
• Wood for additional raised beds
• A wormery
• A log mushroom inoculation kit 
• A greenhouse
• An outdoor store cupboard
• Roof water run-off collection system
• Fire bowl
• Seasoned wood for burning
• Wood store
• Gardening consumables (compost, vermiculite, coconut coir, perlite)
• Materials for bird boxes and bug hotels

TOTAL = £3,300

YOUR LEGACY

With this project your money will go a long way. The equipment we purchase will last for years to come and serve the growing community of children and families that join School 360! 

Here's an example of what the roof garden could look with your support:

ABOUT SCHOOL 360

School 360's aim is to develop a more expansive education, one that develops head (academics), heart (growth and well-being) and hand (creativity and problem-solving).

School 360 is rooted in the community and responsive to the full range of diversity of our local families and children.  We want young people to be taught how to solve problems in creative ways, and to make a difference to the world around them.

ABOUT THE VISIONARIES

The Visionaries is a social enterprise established in 2019 to create spaces for youth and adults to explore side-by-side how to uplift the health of people and planet. We help rekindle the connection between 'human' and 'nature', through wilderness retreats and inner-city programmes in wild spaces for teenagers and young adults, and professional skills training for adults working with youth.

WHO'S LEADING THE PROJECT

Sarah Seleznyov & Andrea Sylvain - Co-Headteachers, School 360

Max Girardeau - Co-Director, The Visionaries

This project successfully funded on 20th March 2022