Green Party Leader visits students’ social food enterprise
Green Party Leader Natalie Bennett is stood front centre left next to Dorota Hajdukiewicz, the President of the Students for Sustainability Society (centre right), alongside students from the Students for Sustainability Society.
Thu, 12 May 2016 01:00:00 BST
Students’ social food project aims to raise awareness about growing your own food, eating healthier produce and becoming more environmentally aware
◄ Natalie Bennett sitting far left talking to the Students for Sustainability about their social food enterprise
A LOCAL food-growing project in the making gained particular interest from the Leader of the Green Party, Natalie Bennett, when she paid a special visit to meet the University of Huddersfield students involved.
The social food enterprise, set up by Huddersfield students from the Students for Sustainability Society with help from Dr John Lever of the Business School’s Centre for Sustainable and Resilient Communities, aims to promote and make available healthy, organic and locally-grown food to students and staff of the University. The group will also hold workshops, for children and adults from the local community, to raise awareness about growing their own food, eating healthier produce and becoming more environmentally aware.
Led by the President of the Students for Sustainability Society, Dorota Hajdukiewicz, the group will be making use of two derelict greenhouses situated on an unused plot of land on University grounds in Lockwood, Huddersfield (as seen pictured). The University’s Estates and Facilities department has also agreed to help by making the site safe and useable.
Dorota, an international business studies student with a passion for the environment and sustainability, believes this exciting project could become a sustainable business model and one that could become an example for other universities to follow.
“This space will be somewhere where everyone will find something to do,” said Dorota. “Whether it be developing a heating or watering system or finding innovative ways to grow fruit and vegetables. Together we can learn and teach others how to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly,” she added.
Natalie Bennett, the Leader of the Green Party, heard about the project through the Green Party Councillor for Kirklees, Andrew Cooper. She was so impressed with the way the student society was leading the project and also the support they had received from the University that she decided to pay them a special visit to personally talk to them about the enterprise.
“Universities have a huge part to play in developing the sustainability agenda and it’s important that students are leading this initiative,” said the Green Party Leader. “These students will probably eventually leave university, head out into the world and take the skills and knowledge from a successful project like this to other communities around Britain and beyond,” she added.
- Work is currently underway to make the site user-friendly. To find out more about the project or get involved, email sfs.foodproject@gmail.com.
