Borough Market’s Young Marketeers return for first Summer Sale since 2019
As the school term draws to an end, London’s youngest market traders are returning to Borough Market for the first Summer Sale since the pandemic.
60 pupils from 12 primary schools will be showcasing the delicious fruit and veg they’ve grown over the past few months and selling their produce to the Market’s customers on Thursday 7 July. Previous sales have seen pupils selling their school-grown rhubarb, radishes, cucumber, marrow, lettuce, spring onions, strawberries, lavender, herb bunches, garlic and more.
The sale marks more than ten years of The Young Marketeers Programme, a partnership between Borough Market and charity School Food Matters.
Designed to help children understand where their food comes from and how to eat seasonally, the Young Marketeers Programme sees experts from the two organisations teach pupils how to grow their own produce and how to cook with it. This knowledge – which is becoming increasingly more important as the cost-of-living crisis saw 13.8% households experiencing food poverty in April 2022 – means that children discover invaluable home-cooking skills, as well as essential life skills, both in nutrition and entrepreneurship.
Not only do pupils gain an insight in to how to look after themselves in the future, they also learn about difficulties other children face in getting access to food, something more than 2.6 million children are currently experiencing. All proceeds made from the market day go to London’s largest food distribution charity, The Felix Project, who the pupils visit at the start of the programme to understand the impact of food poverty and food waste.
