University of Westminster awarded £40,000 from Greener Futures Fund

The project will entail delivering interactive workshops in six secondary schools over a two-year period across Westminster focusing on food sustainability. These workshops will reach 780 young people within these schools in Key Stages Three and Four. The interactive workshops on food sustainability will include the whole food journey, exploring the origins of food to school canteens, worker conditions in raising food, carbon footprint, food storage and preservation and responsible production and consumption. They will also discuss the role of data science, especially Artificial intelligence (AI), in addressing food waste issues.

Hands-on training will be provided to young people and school staff to support them in co-designing and conducting food waste audits to track the amount and type of food waste generated in schools. Along with this, up to six hydroponic units will be set up in schools to grow food without soil, establishing urban food growing systems in the University’s partner schools. Students will also learn how to use food waste to create nutrient-rich compost onsite. The project aims to train up to 720 pupils and 100 school staff to operate and maintain these systems to grow food locally long after the project finishes.  

The new initiative will be delivered by ten Student Outreach Leaders recruited within the University who will carry out the two-year project within the six partner schools between September 2024 and June 2026. These Leaders will be managed by lead academics within the Cavendish Living Lab (CLL) team.

Westminster will collaborate with the Young Westminster Foundation, who are providing one of their youth hubs, The Feathers Association, to co-design an urban food growing system that will also include two other hydroponic units.  

The project was designed and will be led by the University’s award-winning Cavendish Living Lab, under lead academic and Senior Lecturer and Co-Course Leader for Biological Sciences BSc Honours in the School of Life Sciences Dr Pooja Basnett. This lab uses small scale hydroponic units, ideal for urban environments with limited space, to grow fresh greens. It gives students the chance to grow root vegetables and fruits, using nutrient-rich compost from food waste collected from the catering facilities on site. The students involved are paid for their time and effort spent with the project and have the opportunity to get involved with growing fresh food and gain crucial work experience, enhancing their employability skills.

Dr Pooja Basnett said: “We are excited to introduce the Urban Farms for Young Minds project, generously funded by Grosvenor’s Greener Futures Fund. This initiative aims to educate and empower students from schools within the borough of Westminster to take climate action through interactive workshops and the establishment of circular local food systems. Building on our experiences with the Cavendish Living Lab, we look forward to motivating young students to learn how to grow food locally, advocate for it, champion sustainability and experience authentic learning in the process. The project will be led by our Cavendish Living Lab academic team - Dr Pooja Basnett, Dr Luca Cacciolatti, Dr Linda Percy, Dr Dipankar Sengupta and Dr Caroline Smith - alongside the student team. We are particularly excited that our students from Westminster will lead this outreach, fostering a new generation of greener future leaders.”

The Cavendish Living Lab is open to all Westminster students and uses the University campus as its very own laboratory. It gives students a chance to partner with various stakeholders to address real world issues and co-create innovative and sustainable solutions. There are three strands to the project: Urban Food Growing, Bioplastics Production and Water Management.

Jules Attanayake from the Fundraising and Development team said: “We are thrilled to have received this funding from Grosvenor’s Greener Futures Fund! Building on the success of our CLL and using our in-house expertise – we are excited to take this opportunity for knowledge exchange with pupils at our partner schools, who, as the next generation, will take up the baton to combat global warming and will learn through the project the importance of and reasons behind achieving Net Zero emissions, in particular by addressing food waste. Areas around the University are in the top 20% most deprived neighbourhoods in the country, with a high eligibility for free school meals, so providing education around equitable access to nutritious meals for all school children is imperative, irrespective of their backgrounds.”

Urban Food Growing explores how people can use food waste created in the University to grow food on campus and support a circular economy. So far, staff and students have produced tomatoes, lettuce, parsley and radishes which have been donated to a local foodbank in London. The CLL was one of three Westminster projects to have been shortlisted for the 2023 Green Gown Awards, the most prestigious global recognition of excellence in sustainability within the further and higher education sector.

This project directly contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 3: Good Health and Wellbeing, 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities and 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. Since 2019, the University of Westminster has used the SDGs holistically to frame strategic decisions to help students and colleagues fulfil their potential and contribute to a more sustainable, equitable and healthier society.

Find out more about the Cavendish Living Lab.

To find out how to support the Cavendish Living Lab, please email the Development team.