In Edinburgh, over 5,000 kids are on a journey to ‘Grow Strong’, a pilot project from social enterprise and charity Edinburgh Community Food and not-for-profit Veg Power, to help children learn about where food comes from and to encourage them to grow fruit and vegetables.
38 Edinburgh primary schools and local families received their Grow Packs earlier this year and have been carefully raising Cherry Tomatoes. The packs included propagators, seeds and compost kindly donated by Unwins Seeds.
Liberton Primary School will be repotting their tomato plants ready to take home for the summer holidays with the help of Gracemount Community Garden and the new Deputy Lord Provost, Councillor Lezley Marion Cameron.
Over the school holidays, if our little growers are having trouble with their crop, children and families will be able to attend ‘Tomato Plant Surgeries’ taking place weekly at Broomhouse and Murrayburn & Hailesland Community Gardens.
Once the cherry tomatoes are ready to harvest the children will head to the kitchen to turn their tomatoes into a delicious pasta sauce.
The learning will continue throughout the Summer with a number of exciting events for children taking place at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, which will help them on their Grow Strong journey and ensure the cherry tomatoes make a tasty pasta sauce.
Share your Tomato Adventure using #TOMTASTIC.
ABOUT EDINBURGH COMMUNITY FOOD:
Edinburgh Community Food is all about helping people enjoy delicious, fresh, healthy food and making sure everyone in our city has access to an affordable, healthy diet. Our aim is to get people into healthy food and healthy food into people.
We tackle health inequalities in low-income communities in Edinburgh through our Food and Health Development and Promotion work, including cooking and nutrition courses, health information presentations and delivery of Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland accredited courses.
We believe in: Healthier food – Healthier lives – Healthier futures
As a leader in Edinburgh’s community food and health sector we are working to promote health equality by helping to provide healthy food, offering food education and supporting community health initiatives.
ABOUT VEG POWER
Veg Power, a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, was founded by the Food Foundation, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Sir John Hegarty and Baroness Boycott to turn around vegetable consumption in the UK.
It uses advertising and communications to inspire kids to eat vegetables and create life-long good food habits that they will, in turn, share with their children.
vegpower.org.uk
Grow Strong Updates will be available here: www.edinburghcommunityfood.org.uk/grow-strong
Grow Strong is supported by Veg Power UK, Edible Edinburgh, The City of Edinburgh Council, Unwins Seeds, Westland Horticulture and The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
