Mr. Michael Kelly:

I thank the committee for the invitation to appear before it today. The primary school students of today are the first generation that will experience the strongest impacts of climate change. It is critical that we provide these students with the tools, knowledge and life skills to support their wellbeing into the future. I believe we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to embed food growing and food literacy into our primary education system.

For members of the committee who are not familiar with GIY, we are an award-winning social enterprise that supports people to live healthier, happier lives by growing some of their own food. GIY has run education programmes in primary schools across Ireland and the UK since 2014. More than 1 million schoolchildren and 55% of primary schools in Ireland have taken part in a GIY food growing programme in that time. We were also invited by Healthy Ireland to join the food in school forum to provide leadership and guidance in helping children to make healthy food choices.

The GROW At School solution itself is simple. Primary schools receive a kit with all the materials they need to create a school garden. Students learn how to grow 14 different vegetables in the school, under a growing plan designed to grow and harvest in line with the academic year. Teachers take a school garden course to provide them with the training and skills to facilitate growing at school. Lesson plans and teaching resources linked to the curriculum are provided and teachers invited to join a community of GROW At School teachers nationwide.

How does this support mental health and well-being? Food growing is an important climate mitigation activity that saves carbon and protects biodiversity directly. It is important to note that negative emotions relating to climate change are among the most commonly reported anxieties and worries among children of today. A garden environment is a place that supports learning, resilience, hope, health, positivity and well-being. Putting a seed into soil teaches children the understanding of where their food comes from, the benefits of eating nutritious food and an increased appreciation of the connection between healthy diets and healthy minds.

According to Dr. Sandra Austin, of the Marino Institute of Education, gardens are place of learning, inclusion, equality, joy, connection, healing and celebration. There are proven physical and mental benefits of engaging with the soil. There are even happiness-boosting bugs in soil called mycobacterium vaccaethat make one feel positive and confident. Teachers from the programme to date speak of the sensory benefits that children report such as smelling herbs and working with the soil. Sometimes they even enjoy the weeding. A garden provides a whole-school approach to supporting well-being and mental health in children, an approach outlined by the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, guidelines.

A garden is a place that acts as a formal and an informal teaching tool, providing for a balance of activities and experiential hands-on learning in a positive and fun environment. Teachers taking part in the GROW At School programme report that it supports a sense of inclusivity, belonging and connectedness. Spending time in nature boosts resilience and recovery in children. It helps them to feel calm, hopeful and safe. Garden-based learning supports well-being by minimising alienation and by providing an environment that supports language differences, differing cultural backgrounds, trauma or other challenges that students may face.

GROW At School has been piloted as a programme for four years and is now ready for scale. We are incredibly ambitious for this programme. We currently provide it in 132 primary schools and we aim to roll it out to 1,600 schools by 2024, which would be half of all primary schools in the State. We aim to have every primary school in Ireland growing food by 2030.

I will now outline our recommendations to the committee. We recommend the implementation of GROW At School as a national food growing programme for primary schools that supports mental health and well-being. We would look for departmental funding for GROW At School as a health and well-being initiative delivered through public partnership between the public sector, social enterprise and private businesses. We have raised nearly €600,000 for this programme so far. We would also seek support for the development of curriculum-linked lesson plans in collaboration with the HSE health and well-being teams. We further recommend the support programme's evaluation and potential expansion in the future to post-primary education.

GROW At School can be an effective national programme that meets multiple objectives and action points outlined in the programme for Government including, specifically under theme No. 1, action point 1.2, to encourage schools and colleges to provide access to land where students can grow their own food. GROW At School promotes healthy behaviours, supports well-being, and provides a hands-on experience that teaches students they can be their own agents for change. We invite the committee to support this programme and partner with us in this once-in-a-generation opportunity to provide a positive, practical and pro-active solution that promotes well-being and supports mental health.

I thank members for their attention and I welcome their questions.