Ashlyns Farm, near Chipping Ongar in Essex, are continuing to expand their Feeding our Future Project, thanks to help from the Rural Development Service (RDS).
The project was established by Ashlyns Organics Farm in 2004, to supply locally grown food to schools. Through the Rural Enterprise Scheme (RES), RDS provided a 50% grant of nearly £190,000 towards kitchen facilities to prepare food for schools as well as training for school kitchen staff. The grant also supported the formation of a co-operative of local farmers, who will supply 'Feeding our Future' under their own cooperative brand, and assistance to market the business to over 100 schools in Essex, and to other public sector services, such as Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and foster homes.
Nicola Newell, an adviser for the Rural Development Service in the East of England, said:
"'Feeding our Future' makes an excellent contribution to sustainable rural development, which is the whole purpose of RES. The project opens up a valuable new market for farmers, which will help keep jobs on farms. The quality of the training provided by Jeannette Orrey and her team will ensure that pupils and teachers enjoy really tasty fresh meals and the high food safety standards provide peace of mind for parents.
"The software systems being developed for the project will allow full traceability from field to plate and will accurately measure the food miles in every meal. Measuring food miles is a vital step towards minimising the environmental impact of the project and we hope this initiative will encourage others in the industry to follow suite.
"We've worked closely with Ashlyns to help get this project started and we hope it will serve as a successful example for the whole country of how larger scale procurement of local food can be made to work."
Gary Stokes, of Ashlyns Organics and Project Director of the Feeding our Future project, said:
"The project is going from strength to strength, thanks to public awareness about the importance of having good, local food in schools through Jamie Oliver's campaigning. The assistance from the RDS has helped our project develop enormously. The advice and support we received meant that we could get the plans for the initial kitchen facilities and marketing ventures off the drawing board and into practice."
To raise the profile of the possibilities for local growers, on Thursday 29 September Ashlyns Organics Farm will host the regional steering group for the Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food.
Sir Don Curry, Chairman of the Strategy Implementation Group, will be amongst the group of delegates visiting the farm to see the project's good work and discuss the East of England delivery plan for sustainable farming and food.
Sir Don Curry said:
"I am delighted to hear that over 100 Essex schools will benefit from this project. The Strategy makes it clear that the challenge of delivering a sustainable future for the farming and food sectors can only be met if both Government and the industry are committed to deliver change. The Feeding our Future project being developed here at Ashlyns Farm is helping to drive forward these transformations towards an industry with a real future. This is an excellent model of what we need to see happening across the whole country."
The East of England Delivery Plan for Sustainable Food and Farming aims to support and promote projects and initiatives that address priority issues in the region. These include reconnecting consumers with food sources, healthy eating and diet awareness, and public procurement.