This article appeared in True Loaf magazine issue 43, July 2020.

One of my schools was awarded a garden grant from School Food Matters and the Wholekids Foundation. Watch the film above to see the difference a garden to make to a school.

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I was delighted to be invited to work with The Embassy the Netherlands and the London Produce Show on another competition to get children more engaged with eating fresh fruit and vegetables.

The three winning schools were invited to attend the London Produce Show at Grosvenor House Hotel, London to meet food growers from all over the world, for a VIP tour. Prizes were kindly donated by Rijk Zwann for the Netherlands, Jan Hutchinson from New Spitalfields Market and Paul Rochford from the Worshipful Company of Gardeners.

My new book is launched in California!

I was delighted to be able to visit The Edible Schoolyard Project in Berkeley, California to meet Director Hannah Love and to be shown around this incredible garden. Alice Waters, who started the project at Martin Luther King Middle School, in Berkeley near San Francisco, has been instrumental in highlighting the need for good food education linking gardening with cooking and helping children to positively connect with plants and food. It was great to see pupils, gardening during their summer holiday and to see them so relaxed in their garden and kitchen. It is testament to a great team of people who work there even when the sun isn’t out!

On the 15th June 2017 Mayflower Primary School was honoured with a  visit from the Queen and Prince Philip. The Queen came because it was the centenary of one of the first bombs to hit London during the First World War. On June 13 1917, a daylight bomb from a German aircraft hit Upper North Street School in Poplar, killing a class of children most of whom were aged between four and six. The Queen and Duke attended a ceremony at the local church and then came to visit the school where she met every pupil. It was an honour to have had this opportunity to meet them.

Pupils won fantastic indoor gardens for their schools when they entered the Fruit N Veg 4 Kids at School Competition. Supported by the Worshipful Company of Gardeners and the Dutch Embassy pupils were given their prizes at the London Produce Show at Grosvenor House Hotel in Mayfair London. They were given a VIP tour of the show and each took home a huge goody bag. 

We appeared in an episode of Down On The Farm on CBeebies 26th May 2017. The programme was all about composting and we made mini wormeries with the presenter Storm. It was a fun and a fantastic experience for the children.

Our school garden at Southwold Primary School in Hackney had the honour of a visit from HRH Countess of Wessex, patron of the London Children’s Flower Society. The pupils talked about all of the gardening projects we do throughout the year and gave her a tour of the rooftop garden.

I gave HRH a copy of ‘Homegrown Tea’ and talked about growing tea at my schools. She was really interested to see the jumper made from flax grown at Southwold, my other schools and other community organisations across London with the help of Cordwainers community garden.

Photos copyright Grant Smith www.grant-smith.com.