Shropshire Good Food Partnership is one of just five organisations across the UK that will receive £100,000 to boost green measures and reduce carbon emissions in schools.

Shropshire Good Food Partnership will use the £100,000 grant over the coming year to demonstrate how the school food system can contribute towards school decarbonisation, build food resilience and increase access to nutritious, healthy food for all.

Jenny Rouquette of the Shropshire Good Food Partnership says: “We are really excited to be involved in this project.  The Zero Carbon Fund will allow us to really look at the whole school food system, how it can contribute towards decarbonisation, building food resilience and increase access to healthy, nutritious food for all.

“Through growing, local procurement, cooking, eating, taste testing, the discovery of low carbon foods and minimising food waste in schools, we hope to empower food citizens for the future. We look forward to celebrating the impact the Schools Food Web will have. Schools across Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin will receive an email in the coming week but can also contact us directly for more information”.

The announcement by Let’s Go Zero – the campaign uniting schools across the UK to be zero carbon by 2030 – comes as schools are being given a higher focus by policymakers for being ‘the change we want to see’ in communities finding ways to be more energy efficient, nature-friendly and on the road to zero carbon.

Alex Green of Let’s Go Zero says: “Through this Zero Carbon Fund we have discovered some really bold and innovative projects that will help schools implement exciting and impactful solutions which bring about longstanding change in educational settings. We are delighted that the Shropshire Good Food Partnership is among the five brilliant winners.

“We’re incredibly excited to see what sort of changes will be made over the next year by each of the five winners to help schools make great strides in their journey to being zero carbon.”

Let’s Go Zero’s ‘Zero Carbon Fund’ is a one-off fund to help these winning initiatives scale up their innovative work with schools as quickly as possible.

Other winners include: Eco-Schools: Count Your Carbon Playground; Retrofit Action For Tomorrow: RAFT Zero Carbon Action Builder: Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK): Fund The Future, Teach The Future; and Brighton & Hove City Council: Our Schools Our World

All schools in the UK can join Let’s Go Zero here: https://letsgozero.org/join/

Pupils from St Martins visiting Shropshire Good Food Partnership member OsNosh in Oswestry to learn about reducing food waste.