Barfoots 50th school veg gardens: Inspiring the next generation

As Barfoots of Botley enters its 50th year, several projects are underway to celebrate this milestone. One of which, is the School Gardens Project. Barfoots are supporting the creation of vegetable gardens at Titchfield Primary School and Rose Green Infant School. These projects are underpinned by Barfoots’ drive to be a responsible business, supporting the wider community.

Rose Green Infant School

An opportunity arose for the UK Supplier Technical Team to support Kim Barfoot-Brace and lead on the creation of a vegetable garden at Rose Green Infant School. The absence of existing growing facilities at the school, coupled with the lack of growing experience from the teachers, made it a fantastic project to get involved in, whilst also supporting Barfoots’ responsible and practical approach to community engagement and education. During the school’s Easter holiday, the UK Supplier Technical Team spent a morning constructing a number of raised beds, filling them with compost, ready for the return of the school children.

A significant number of vegetable seeds (courgette, salad, radish, and beetroot) were donated for the project by Sakata and Syngenta, two of the seed houses that Barfoots work closely with. At the end of April, some of the UK Supplier Technical Team visited Rose Green, to spend a couple of hours planting seeds, young vegetable plants and soft fruit bushes, with the different school classes. The team will continue to visit periodically, to catch up on how everything is doing, and to speak to children about growing vegetables and producing food in a fun, engaging and responsible way.

Above: Alex and Karolina from the Supplier Technical Team in front of the raised beds constructed.

Above: Alex and Kenedy from the Supplier Technical Team amongst the flourishing veg patch.

Titchfield Primary School in collaboration with EcoTitchfield

In addition to Rose Green Infant, Barfoots are also supporting a vegetable garden initiative at Titchfield Primary School (near Barfoots Abshot and Posbrook farm) in collaboration with EcoTitchfield who are on a mission to build a thriving community organisation that will: Reduce the carbon footprint of Titchfield, increase the biodiversity of Titchfield, engage the Titchfield community to make change happen, give hope to future generations that action is possible at speed, with purpose and passion.

Barfoots are supporting with the funding of the school garden, and initiatives to educate the children. The school is growing strawberries alongside the seeds we’ve provided in homage to the history of the area and Barfoots’ roots (Peter Barfoot’s family were strawberry growers!). They are also planting lavender and wildflowers to encourage biodiversity and a positive growing ecosystem.

Kim Barfoot-Brace visited the school on Earth Day to talk to the children about the vegetables we grow and growing sustainably. The children were incredibly excited and it was fantastic to see the energy from the school and EcoTitchfield in inspiring the next generation to look after their environment and have a positive relationship with vegetables. The talk preceded a planting session, where every child in the school connected with their environment and planting something.