As we informed you in the last newsletter Little Growers has recently extended its local projects to not only facilitate growing within schools but now are also running and planning market stalls within the schools. Little Growers held its first Market stall on September 17th in collaboration with the Co-operative SupermarketBagshot and we are extremely pleased with the turnout, everyone involved had a fantastic day! The four Little Growers projects sold their produce to the community, from beetroots, gourds and turnips to herbs, sungold tomatoes and courgettes. It was a huge success and a great way to round off the summer, celebrating how well the schools have done in the first year of the Little Growers local pilot and to raise funds for the schools! Over £315 was raised by the stall and given to the schools to help sustain their gardening projects. As you can see from the photographs the four local schools near to the Little Growers office did extremely well throughout the summer months and at their stall. The best sellers from the stall were the huge crates of rocket that had been freshly harvested that morning, which the children weighed, bagged up and priced, as well as the cherry tomatoes, beetroots and carrots. The Little Growers staff were in awe of how easily and enthusiastically the children took control of the running of the stall, organising the produce, weighing and selling to passers by, we definitely think we have some mini Alan Sugars amongst our Little Growers! Little Growers are now planning to hold more stalls on regular basis in partnership with their local Co-operative supermarket. If Little Growers can set a great precedent with this stall they hope the Co-Op will see what a brilliant idea it is and support the projects. The long term goal of Little Growers is to have the schools’ produce branded and sold within the Co-operative alongside the organic, fair-trade and other ranges. This will mean that parents and residents can choose to buy locally grown produce and sustain the school projects directly. By extending the Little Growers projects from not only growing their own produce but selling it to the local community, the charity is promoting young enterprise and social entrepreneurial skills within the schools. Little Growers are keen to develop as many skills as possible for the students involved in their schemes, not only horticultural and healthy eating knowledge but also teamwork, numeracy and business aptitude. To find out more please visit www.littlegrowers.com or email heather@littlegrowers.co.uk