The Food Forest Eco-Classroom

Why is this important?

The way we currently grow and distribute food is one of the big drivers of climate change and ecosystem collapse. 

These unsustainable methods are:

• responsible for about a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions
• destroying biodiversity at an alarming rate
• keeping us dependent on fossil fuels
• highly vulnerable to the weather extremes caused by climate change

The good news is, it doesn’t have to go on this way.

The way we produce food can be the solution, not the problem.

Combining indigenous wisdom and modern science, we can expand ethical, local food-producing networks that work with nature rather than against her. Doing so will stop worsening the problem now, and help prepare for a climate changed future. The increased access to fresh, nutritious food will also help improve public health.

We're committed to making a contribution to this vital transition.

We can't fix everything with one small project, but we can sow seeds of change. 

By educating and inspiring tomorrow's citizens, we will spread the impact of this project as they take their lessons from it out into the world.

But we need your help!

With the help of your generous donation, this pioneering new project at Dartford Science and Technology College will be able to take root.

What your donation will help us to do

• Boost biodiversity and capture carbon
• Educate about the vital relationships between food, nature and humans
• Produce a harvest of nutritious food, natural medicine and other useful crops
• Inspire personal development and support mental health
• Unite our local community

How we're going to do it:

1. Build an Eco-Classroom

First of all, we’re going get school students and members of the local community together to build an eco-classroom. What makes it eco exactly? Well, it’s made out of straw bales! Forget the three little pigs, this is far from that ill-fated construction of fairy-tale fame.

Why straw bale buildings are great:

• They're a functional use for a waste product. Straw is the leftover stalks from cereal farming, which is usually used as animal bedding or burnt.
• They have low embodied energy. The cereal plants absorb CO2 across their lifetime, a big contrast to other building materials that release lots of CO2 in their production. Basically we're taking carbon out of the atmosphere and building with it!
• They're incredibly insulative and energy-efficient. Because the walls created by the bales are so thick, the building stays cool in summer and warm in winter, requiring little to no heating.
• They're safe as houses. Bath University built a straw bale building, subjected it to temperatures of 1000°C for two hours and it didn't set on fire. They also performed a wind test using hydraulic jacks, and it withstood a force equivalent to that of a hurricane. So huff and puff all you want Mr. Wolf!

And what’s more, the simple building method means students and members of the local community will be getting hands-on with the construction!

What could be more empowering than building your own classroom?

We've been working with straw bale architects Huff and Puff, and they've produced this drawing showing what the Eco-Classroom is going to look like. It's pretty amazing we think!

2. Plant a Food Forest

Surrounding the classroom, we’ll plant trees, shrubs, vines and more to create a resilient, regenerative and edible ecosystem that resembles a young natural woodland. This is known as a Food Forest, or Forest Garden.

What's so great about food forests? 

• They provide an incredibly diverse harvest of nutritious food.
• They're an efficient use of space, packing in a lot of crops in a small area, unlike a traditional orchard which usually provides only one harvest.
• They're low maintenance. By incorporating plants that provide nitrogen and organic matter, we don't need to fertilise the soil every year. Using perennial crops that don't need replanting every year also saves a lot of labour.
• They provide ecosystem services: sequestering carbon, releasing oxygen and providing essential habitat for wildlife.
• They're beautiful and calming places that have a positive impact on mental health and provide space for communities to come together.

Imagine walking through a sunny woodland — birds singing in the trees, butterflies and the smell of flowers in the breeze — where almost every plant produces something you can eat!

Here’s pioneering forest gardener Martin Crawford to explain further:

Not only will the Food Forest provide an experiential education of biodiversity, food and ecosystem regeneration, but it will also enhance the curriculum at the school.

Dye plants for textiles, soil samples for biology, inspiration for English and living examples of the Fibonacci sequence for maths. Not to mention a diversity of raw materials for a land-based student-led enterprise.

The Food Forest and Eco-Classroom will be open to the community through controlled access. There will be communal food-growing areas, opportunities to use the classroom for communal events and space to slow down and spend time with one another.

Twelve years ago, we got the community together to transform an abandoned, fly-tipped wasteland into a thriving allotment space which has since produced wheelbarrows full of healthy food and happy memories. We're now ready to bring the lessons we've learnt to this exciting new project, and together with your help, we can make it happen.

Rewards

All supporters will have their names inscribed on a wall of the Eco-Classroom dedicated to thanking everyone that has backed our project. 

Details of rewards will be sent when the crowdfunder has finished in the spring.

Many thanks to our friends at The Quadrangle who are offering some amazing rewards to you for supporting our project!

You can find out more about their project in the video below.