From seed to plate with Queens Park Academy
We have been working with Queen’s Park Academy to bring food full-circle
For many children there’s still a great deal of mystery when it comes to the journey that food takes to get to our plates. In fact, lots of food we commonly consume as a nation has been through so many processes that it can barely resemble how it originally started out, and the idea of whole foods and natural ingredients is often an unfamiliar one.
Food etc. is passionately dedicated to closing this gap in knowledge and recently worked with children and teachers at Queen’s Park Academy in Bedford, to do just this – helping to bring their food full-circle, from seed to plate.
Working alongside the School Food Matters’ Young Marketeers Programme, we were lucky enough to see QPA students join other local schools and organisations, to run a vibrant market stall in the heart of Bedford’s historic marketplace. It was an explosion of energy and salesmanship that made the town’s veteran stall owners look on in awe.
What followed was a six-week-long series of multi-cultural cookery workshops for Queen’s Park Academy children – showing them how to transform the vegetables they’d grown and sold into simple, healthy and delicious meals.
Experiences like this have never been more important. Over the last six years nearly 33% of Queen’s Park Academy pupils have been eligible for free school meals (FSM) – that’s 7% higher than the national average, and they’re not alone. With the numbers of pupils on FSM continuing to rise, this can pose additional and long-lasting challenges for families and schools alike. For academies such as Queen’s Park, partnerships with organisations like Food etc. can be invaluable in helping to tackle the challenge of food insecurity, hunger and access to nutritious food.
“The programmes have given our children the opportunity to learn valuable life skills and the knowledge and confidence in growing their own produce especially where with some of our children there is a lack of or limited gardening space.” said Roofjahan Islam, of Queen’s Park Academy.
“The families and children have also become more conscious of cooking and eating healthy and nutritious foods. We have been so pleased with the outcomes of being involved that we have excitedly joined our school up for the following years sessions!”
Guided by our friendly team of cooks and instructors, the children got to see first-hand the connection between what we grow and what we eat – and finally experience a very memorable taste of something that they themselves had grown, taken to market and cooked, together.
Pupils at QPA had already proven themselves as young farmers and marketeers, but thanks to Food etc., over the course of the six weeks of workshops, they became chefs-in-training too – turning what they’d grown into a menu of home-made muffins, mini quiches, and lemon cheesecakes.
In the process they gained invaluable skills, cooking knowledge and kitchen confidence. Not only learning how to put tasty, wholesome food on the table, but also developing a healthier, more exciting relationship with food and a better sense of where that food has come from, from field to fork.
