Latest People: Moulsecoomb Primary School’s Edible Playground

Trees For Cities’ Edible Playground
Brighton Paper Round have sponsored the launch of a Trees for Cities’ Edible Playground at Moulsecoomb Primary School in Brighton. To celebrate this exciting new project, a group of children from the Mouslecoomb Primary School helped to plant a tree in the school grounds on 18 March. The event was attended by Leader of Brighton & Hove City Council, Jason Kitcat.

Trees for Cities’ Edible Playgrounds programme tackles obesity, food poverty and lack of access to nature by transforming the grounds of inner city schools; the kids themselves are given the chance to get their hands dirty and learn as they have fun.

Brighton Paper Round is keen to extend the partnership with Trees for Cities locally, which began in 2012 with the planting of 5,000 trees in Stanmer Park. Darren Hedges, general manager at Brighton Paper Round, said; “We are absolutely delighted for the opportunity to support such a fantastic project. Getting an understanding about sustainability, including food production, embedded in children’s mindset from such an early age is really important. We know from our school food recycling project that school children are very keen to do their bit to tackle food, waste and sustainability.”

Sharon Johnson, Chief Executive of Trees for Cities said: “Edible Playgrounds are a fun, practical way to teach children about the food they eat and give them access to fresh, nutritious food. The pupils, staff and parents at Moulsecoomb Primary school have a real passion to utilise their outdoor space and we are delighted that Paper Round and Infinity Foods are supporting this project.”

Moulsecoomb Primary School has a strong ethos on outdoor learning, access to nature, and embedding growing and cooking into the curriculum. They have lots of outdoor space and already have raised beds, chickens, a forest garden, an orchard, and the nuttery that Trees for Cities planted through a project called Local Food a few years ago. The school have also recently been supported by the People’s Health Trust in their growing and cooking activities with local people.

The school’s Edible Playground is transforming the outdoor space in the school grounds into green growing spaces, giving children the opportunity to grow, harvest and eat healthy food. The project will give the children the opportunity to grow and cook food not just during school, but also during school holidays and at weekends with their families.
www.treesforcities.org
www.edibleplaygrounds.org
www.paper-round.co.uk/brighton