Myself and BackMarket, a company focused on refurbishing used tech products, collaborated on an event together which we hosted at Hackney City Farm. BackMarket wanted to find out how much kids understand about the importance of a circular system where products are re-used and how this related to the environment too. This workshop was an opportunity for these inner-city kids to get their hands into the soil and connect with nature in a physical way.

We invited a local school to come and learn how to grow Broccoli and Sunflower microgreens and I took them through a 90-minute class, demonstrating each step, while they followed along. They were all given a kit to take away so that they could continue to grow at home.

I showed the kids a microgreen growing set-up that I made from an upcycled Backmarket billboard pot, to open their eyes and to show that they can grow in any type of pot. 

Backmarket provided 2nd hand Pads on each table that displayed my microgreen e-book so that the kids could follow the steps and see the value of refurbished devices. This was a link of circularity with the campaign.

My goal was to get kids excited about growing food that they grew themselves and that they can eat within a week at home, using minimal space.

Before this class, the teachers approached us saying that they didn’t know how the kids would react to getting their hands dirty, as some had never touched soil!

This unfortunately aligned with the stat that Backmarket had revealed in a recent survey, where 27% of London kids have no outdoor space and that 73% of children in London said they see more wildlife on a screen than in real life.

By the end of the class, the same teachers came to me and said how surprised they were at how the kids responded. They all got stuck in, got their hands dirty, all listened and were well behaved.

This event was a real success and now those kids have gone home with their own microgreen kits and with the knowledge and inspiration to continue to grow their own.

A seed was planted that day!

Photography by AWA Visuals.