As the government prepares changes to the national curriculum and following the recent announcement that high-sugar and deep-fried foods will be removed from school menus, a London farm visit offers a glimpse of what food education could look like in practice.
As the Government moves to implement a new national curriculum, the absence of food and farming education is coming under increasing scrutiny. Currently, around 1 in 3 children are leaving primary school overweight or obese – prompting the Government to announce earlier this week that high-sugar and deep-fried foods are to be pulled from school menus.
On Thursday, the Sustainable Food Trust brought together educators, policymakers and food leaders at Growing Communities Dagenham Farm to demonstrate a simple but largely overlooked solution to improving food education: using working farms as classrooms.
At present, farming is largely absent from what children are formally taught in the school curriculum.
The event, part of the SFT’s UK Beacon Farms Network, showcased how urban farms can reconnect children with where food comes from – offering practical, sensory experiences that cannot be replicated in the classroom.
Guests were joined by Madam Mayor Princess Bright, Civic Mayor of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, highlighting the growing role of local leadership in supporting community-based food initiatives.
The morning concluded with a barbecue lunch prepared by chef and broadcaster Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, using fresh organic produce grown on-site – a tangible demonstration of the link between farming, food and health.
Patrick Holden, Founder and Chief Executive of the Sustainable Food Trust, said:
“We are raising a generation of children who are disconnected from how food is produced and, at the same time, diet-related disease is rising sharply. As most children now grow up in cities, a network of urban farms could play a transformative role in reconnecting them with food, farming and nature.
A five-minute visit to a cowshed changed the course of my own life – I know first-hand how powerful these experiences can be.”
Growing Communities Dagenham Farm is one of London’s leading organic producers, supplying wholesale salads and vegetables across east London. The farm is run by Alice Holden.
Dagenham Farm hosted more than 80 sessions with local school children and young adults in 2025, enabling them to sample flavours and activities they have never experienced before. They are currently fundraising for a new education centre to enable more local children to visit this local living classroom.
Teresa Byrne, Tutor, Barking & Dagenham College, said:
“Our students have a voracious appetite for learning outside of the classroom where there is no ceiling to their achievements.”
NOTES
[1] The Sustainable Food Trust (SFT) is a UK registered charity working to accelerate the transition to more sustainable food and farming systems. It was founded by Patrick Holden in 2011 in response the worsening human and environmental crises associated with many of our current food and farming systems.
[2] Growing Communities is a community-led organisation based in Hackney, north-east London, which has been helping Londoners feel good about their food choices since 1996, and is working to transform what we eat, how we eat and how it’s farmed for the better.
[3] Dagenham Farm produces organic vegetables (and fruit) in glasshouses and polytunnels and outdoors for sale locally and wholesale in East London. The farm welcomes volunteers weekly, and hosts school, community and corporate groups by arrangement.
[4] The Beacon Farms Network, launched by the Sustainable Food Trust and The Harmony Project in 2024, brings together sustainable and regenerative farms acting as educational platforms to inform and inspire young people and adults about the story behind their food. The Network collaborates with and empowers farmers to harness the power of “seeing is believing” experiences to build a body of informed public opinion.
