Recently in the Little Growers we were taking a trip down memory lane and looking back at what we have achieved since we began in 2008. We have set up 35 schools with full horticultural set ups of polytunnels, raised beds, irrigation systems, waterbutts, seeds… everything they need to have a fully fledged grow your own learning area. We have also provided 50 schools with their own propagation units and seeds so that they can have an indoor growing area to bring on their plants to then transplant into their outdoor areas. We work with children of all ages and abilities facilitating them to learn outdoors, to understand where their food comes from and to have key life skills in healthy eating, team work and sustainability. Our projects are adapted to each individual school’s needs from infants to young adults, whether inner city space limited projects to vast commercial scale grows. We continue to have better and better results in schools, with our team learning and expanding every year to achieve more with the children and ensure they take away as much as possible from their Little Growers project.
Little Growers began as a UK focused charity, in 2008 and 2009 we worked with UK schools, however since 2010 we have worked with a range of international schools. We now have school initiatives in Thailand, the Maldives, Japan and South Africa. At Little Growers we are extremely proud of our increasing worldwide presence, each country requires different set ups due to contrasting climates, community needs and native produce varieties. The Maldives project has been hugely successful, with local government and hotel resorts currently discussing sponsorship of the scheme and expansion possibilities. To find out more about our international initiatives please see previous newsletters and our Online Community updates. The results are extremely diverse and its really exciting to see the Little Growers template spreading worldwide to help more and more children from all walks of life.
Little Growers is a not for profit organisation and we would not be able to function without the ongoing support of our sponsors. Since we began our main sponsor AutoPot has provided invaluable financial support, horticultural advice and hands on visits for us. They have donated over £7,500, countless equipment and of course their environmentally friendly irrigation systems. Unwins, Sutton Seeds, Gold Label Compost, Growth Technology and many more suppliers have donated equipment over the years and we would like to say a huge thank you for helping to sustain and increase Little Growers work throughout the UK and increasingly worldwide.