The National Trust has been awarded Greener Living Fund money to support a programme aimed at inspiring visitors, members and the public to buy, eat and grow more sustainably produced, local food. The project will include the following 3 elements which will overlap with and complement each other:
1. Interpretation and Visitor Engagement: We will be bringing the food story to life at our properties through imaginative interpretation in restaurants, kitchen gardens and on farms, coupled with engaging, family friendly activities around cooking, growing and eating healthy food that’s better for the planet.
2. Providing training for National Trust staff, volunteers and tenants farmers to give them the skills and confidence to effectively communicate and engage with visitors about growing and eating sustainably produced local food.
3. Practical food growing: We will create at least 10 new food growing spaces for local people including school plots, community allotments, community supported agriculture schemes and orchards. There will be a strong communal element, enabling participants to learn together and gain moral support, making the experience fun.
The ambitious aim of the programme is to persuade 20% of family visitors at National Trust targeted properties to change their behaviour with regard to food, making more sustainable choices, growing their own, and connecting more closely with farmers and food producers. The programme will be aimed in particular at changing behaviour to eat more food that is sustainably and locally produced, as the first major step towards an environmentally low impact diet. Research suggests that food is one of the best ways into green living for many people and families.
What we eat epitomises the way we live and the Trust will take every opportunity to use food to explore and motivate wider sustainable lifestyle changes, not just on reducing food waste and composting, which is the most direct link, but also on water saving, energy saving, re-use of materials and transport.
