Grow Your Own and enjoy a Big Lunch
Grow Your Own, a new campaign to promote seasonal eating and food growing, was launched yesterday. Eating more seasonal fruit and vegetables is an easy way for people to improve their health and help reduce the environmental footprint of their diet.
The campaign, funded in part by Defra, is promoted by a coalition of the nation’s biggest gardening stores and organisations including WRAP; The Royal Horticultural Society; Garden Organic; The National Trust; Global Action Plan, the National Union of Students, Sustain; the Eden Project; the Soil Association; the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens; Landshare; and leading retailers including B&Q, Dobbies, Suttons, M&S, Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
The campaign’s website, www.eatseasonably.co.uk, features instructions on easy fruit and vegetable growing; special offers from partners involved in the campaign; expert advice from national gardening organisations and local experts; and information on growing events, demonstrations and festivals around the UK.
It links with another initiative being launched today, The Big Lunch. This is a nationwide event on 19 July which aims to get communities sitting down to a street lunch. Spearheaded by the Eden project it provides a perfect opportunity to share your harvest with your neighbours.
Defra’s Secretary of State, Hilary Benn said:
“Increasingly, people want to get more involved with where their food comes from – and eating food that’s in season or growing your own fruit and veg is a great way of doing that.
“You can see what’s on the table changing with the seasons, and it’s more fun to try different ingredients in your meals - not to mention the satisfaction of thinking ‘I grew that.’ And eating more fruit and veg is good for our health.
"I hope the Big Lunch will not only bring communities closer together for one lunchtime, but also throughout the year’.
Further information
Page last modified: 30 March 2009
Page published: 30 March 2009