Sunderland children cultivate food for their local community with school garden project
The children have purchased new garden tools thanks to £500 of funding.
Sunderland children are hoping for a bumper harvest to help provide local families with food from their community garden after securing £500 of funding to buy gardening tools.
Christ’s College in Pennywell initially set-up their community garden on an “under used space” after receiving seeds as part of the King’s Coronation project.
The project was designed to create wild gardens and flowerbeds to mark the first anniversary of King Charles III reign, but children have further developed the area to now include vegetable patches.
The development of the community garden has been in part made possible after the school secured £500 worth of funding from Sunderland City Council’s Seeds of Potential Fund to replace tools which had initially been “begged and borrowed in the garden’s early days”.
The garden is cultivated by the school’s Gardening Club, which is made up from the College’s primary school aged children, and overseen by higher needs teacher Julie Corrigan.
The food grown is being spit between the school’s canteen as well as being donated to local families.
Ms Corrigan said: “Our tools were begged and borrowed but now we have implements that are the right size for the children.
“We have been growing potatoes, sweetcorn, peas, leeks, onions, runner beans and rhubarb, which the whole school can watch grow as the patch is on the way to the dining room.
“We can also eat the produce and send the surplus home for families. We are helping to feed the community and the children absolutely love it
“The school has a strong focus on character development, having recently been awarded the ACE Character Mark.
“The Gardening Club provides the opportunity to demonstrate love in action, as they seek to serve the school community and the community beyond the school gates.”
The cultivation of their own crops is also part of the College’s Healthy Weight Declaration which “encourages eating fresh vegetables”.
The garden project is also being supported by Sunderland based charity, Hope4Kidz.