Borough Market celebrates 10 years of Harvest Sale

On Tuesday 5th and Wednesday 6th October, 100 children from 20 London primary schools* will be setting out their stalls and selling fruit and vegetables grown from seed at Borough Market’s Harvest Sale. In a welcome return to the live event which had to be held in the schools’ playgrounds during the pandemic, every £1 raised by the school children will provide six meals for vulnerable families across the capital.

The Young Marketeers programme, run as a partnership with campaigning food education charity School Food Matters, is now in its tenth year at Borough Market, and the Harvest Sale has seen 1,617 children taking their produce from seed to stall. To date, nearly 50,000 children from over 182 London schools have helped grow fruit and vegetables at their school to raise money for food distribution charities, FareShare and The Felix Project, providing almost 50,000 meals for those in need.

Borough Market traders shared their selling secrets with the budding stallholders and schools were supported with growing tips from experienced horticulturists. Borough Market’s traders’ top tips for being a successful stallholder can be seen here – from creating eye-catching displays to hygiene and customer relations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwq2M1pH1ig



The recent publication of the National Food Strategy highlighted the need for better food education. The strategy recommended a new Eat and Learn Initiative to reframe food education as a valuable subject in its own right. The experience of ten years of the Young Marketeers programme has demonstrated the value of learning about food production, cooking skills and sustainability.