Now we’re funding Batley Girls’ farm!

We are delighted to now be funding the Batley Girls’ High School farm. Batley is an 11-19 school set in an urban area of West Yorkshire and has a unique, fully functioning farm within school grounds, know as the Howden Clough Farm. This farm has contributed in creating a Community Garden that helps build a new understanding of what sustainability means for all its pupils as well as all of its local residents. Growing an array of fresh vegetables and fruit the farm is also home to chickens, goats, guinea fowl, ducks, bees and quails that are looked after by the Farm Manager, Yvonne Kilvington, a Modern Apprentice, Emma Stanworth, who work alongside a whole host of volunteers. The Howden Clough Farm aims to offer countryside careers to students combined with the unique opportunity to learn transferable skills and to learn from members of our local community. They also wish to spread their sustainable mission throughout the surrounding area and get residents to get involved with growing their own produce, no matter how small the growing area available to them.
As a Flagship School for the Food For Life Partnership it lives up to the ‘Grow it, Cook it, Eat it’ mission. Fruit, vegetables, eggs, milk and honey all go back into the school kitchen or are used in lessons for cooking. The school intends to open up a Farm Shop that will sell organic, home grown produce to the community in September 2012.