April 2008 - Posts
I was, frankly, humbled by what I heard at a meeting of all the regional chairs for the Year towards the end of last week. There is so much going on at the grass roots level to take real pride in - so much commitment, enthusiasm and local ownership that I hold a huge amount of optimism for the legacy of the Year. There is so much momentum to build on that I am truly confident we can keep on seeing improvements in children's reconnection with food and farming into the future through more and more people making connections at a local level. I will be spending a good deal of time over the summer term travelling around the country visiting and taking part in a wide range of local events and initiatives in support of the Year. I'm really looking forward to it and will enjoy reporting back on what I've seen as I go about. I also think it's really important to thank people for their contributions. That is why we will be hosting a special event for real 'local heroes' who have made outstanding contributions to the Year at the Royal Show in July. We will also be launching an evaluation project in the summer to try and capture the full breadth and scale of the Year, in particular at the grass roots level - this will give us all a real sense of the 'sum of the parts'.
I am delighted that our Patron, HRH The Prince of Wales has agreed to join us for a visit to Cardinal Wiseman Catholic school in Coventry next Wednesday, 22nd April. We will be joined by industry and business leaders from locally and nationally as well as councillors, policymakers, government officials and NGOs. The purpose of the day is to see an inspirational example of how to integrate food and farming within a school environment and discuss how this could be achieved across all schools. I'll report back on how the day went next week.
I was delighted to see the number of organisations, schools and families pledging to get involved in the Year pass 20,000 at the end of last week. Two days later and we're nudging 21,000. There is such a heartening amount of enthusiasm around giving children crucial first hand experiences.