View from the Regions
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'.