How local businesses can help

Offer your local school skills and time to help them start growing

As a local business, offer your local school skills and
time to help them start growing. Photo: Garden Organic.

Working with your local school by giving your time, skills and knowledge to food growing projects is a great way to engage your employees with the wider local community, and to give something back.

It will also raise your profile locally and create new connections with customers and the school you work with. Sound good? See how your local business can get involved below.

What can you do as a local business?

Here are some ideas...

  • Sponsor - a school vegetable growing plot either by donating money or materials. It is an easy way to contribute to your community and help you meet your business’s corporate social responsibilities.
  • Restaurants - help a school grow specific foods and then buy them back at the end of the season.  Meet  with teachers and parents to help organise cooking lessons or an event that also fits into the school curriculum. 
  • Corporate Volunteering - why not allow staff time off work to help out with schools food growing projects,  for example by building some raised beds (as part of a Design and Technology lesson). Find out about corporate volunteering opportutnities in London, below:

Stories of schools working with local businesses:

Hitherfield Primary School in Lambeth worked with a local baker, to transform their school grown herbs into Italian herby focaccia. Find out how here.

Corporate volunteering

We have teamed up with Capital Growth to use their corporate volunteering online match-making service. It enables you to find opportunities for your employees to get together and give a hand for a day or half-a-day, including helping schools. Read More

Grow Your Own Business

Our Grow Your Own Business activities offer schools the opportunity to learn about enterprise and grow their own food to sell, giving children the opportunity to learn new business and employment skills across a range of subjects (e.g. maths, technology, PSHE). Nurturing these skills when they are young will lead to a stronger local economy in the future.

Why not get involved? As a business you have a huge amount of skills to offer!