Mr. Michael Kelly:

I thank the Deputy. It is such an important point. The feedback we get from schools is always that food growing is a great leveller for children of all abilities and ages. Sometimes the most marginalised children can participate and thrive in the school environment where they may not be thriving academically. That feedback is very strong from the participating schools. In general, by taking action and doing something positive is a great way to alleviate the anxiety over some of the hopelessness we might feel around climate change, which is such an existential, oppressive issue. Food growing, for adults or children, on a personal level is such a positive, optimistic thing. You are sticking a seed in the soil and trusting it will turn into a plant that will product food. It is an act of hope and very forward-looking as well. You are always looking six months down the line to what is coming next. For the children who are participating, we find the feedback very strongly that they feel a huge sense of pride and empowerment.

On a general level, we all go through our lives surrounded by systems we do not necessarily understand, such as our phones, computers and so on. The same somewhat applies to our food system. We do not necessarily understand how it all works. The food shows up in the supermarket and we purchase it, so we have a slightly infantilised relationship with food now. When you grow some food yourself you understand how it all works and that is an incredible sense of empowerment, which is also a very positive thing for any individual, but especially for children. We want to create that foundation where, with a very small investment per school, they can have a school garden space for people. It can be done in almost all school environments. We have put school gardens into tiny urban spaces and it works. We need to embed that into our food system as something that becomes the norm rather than the exception.