Westminster City Council is joining forces with the UK’s leading resource management company Veolia, Tesco and community action charity Groundwork to introduce greener areas on school grounds by donating free strawberry plants to three schools across the borough.
The Veolia Orchard campaign will be donating almost 600 fruit trees and 800 strawberry plants to UK schools without biodiverse green areas or limited by space to help children learn more about the environment.
Last week, Hallfield Primary School were the first in the country to receive their plants, housed in a planter donated by Tesco which is made from recycled soft plastic – collected in its stores from customers to help recycle plastic not always collected through kerbside collections. Soft plastic used in each planter could include bread bags, carrier bags and pasta packets. Veolia’s own ProGrow also provided peat-free compost to fill the planters.
Before the pupils got stuck in, the Veolia Westminster team delivered an assembly to help them understand the power of plants. These young environmentalists are no strangers to sustainability initiatives though, having also been the winners of Westminster Council’s Clean Air Fund back in 2019. This funding helped them install air purifiers in six of their classrooms to help them tackle the adverse effects of air pollution that disproportionately affects young people.
Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg joined the pupils of Hallfield Primary for their planting ceremony to help their strawberries take root. The pupils will be rewarded for their hard work when their plants bear fruit next spring.
This campaign is being powered by Veolia’s Sustainable Schools programme which educates children and young adults on the importance of protecting our planet and the environment. For more information on how Veolia supports schools and to discover other partnership opportunities please visit www.veolia.co.uk/schools.
Applications for Westminster’s Clean Air Fund are open. Email [email protected] to find out more.
