BOSSES and staff at the intu Braehead shopping mall dug deep to help create a new vegetable garden for pupils at a Paisley primary school.

Not only did the shopping centre donate £2000 to the project, organised by Young Enterprise Scotland, staff also volunteered to do some of the hard work preparing the ground for the raised beds and building the sheltered outdoor classroom at Todholm Primary.

14/09/15..
PAISLEY.
INTU Breahead visit Todholm Primary school

Almost 20 staff from intu Braehead cleared weeds, shrubs and trees, laid a new path, painted and helped build the outdoor classroom as part of the company’s initiative to pay staff to do charity or community work.

Youngsters will now be able to grow their own vegetables, which will be cooked as part of their school dinners, or sold on to raise funds for the school.

The Young Enterprise Scotland team led by co-ordinator, James Ward involved the pupils and staff at every stage of construction of the outdoor classroom and edible garden.
Lynne McGinn, head teacher at Todholm Primary said: “This process which very much included pupil input helped the children to gain a real sense of learning for work and helped to give them ownership and pride on completion of the project.

14/09/15..
PAISLEY.
INTU Breahead visit Todholm Primary school

“We are extremely grateful to Young Enterprise Scotland and intu Braehead, for without their support we would never have been able to achieve such wonderful results in such a short period of time.

“We are now in a position to further develop quality outdoor learning opportunities for our children, who are keen to get to work in their new learning environment.

“They are motivated and very excited about planting and growing their own food. We are also hoping that this will lead to excellent enterprise opportunities by encouraging the children to set up and run a small business, selling some of their produce.”

Gary Turnbull, intu Braehead’s general manager said: “This is a great project for the pupils at Todholm as it not only gives them the chance to learn about plants and vegetables, but they also get practical experience of planting, growing and harvesting their produce.

“I’m sure the youngsters will soon have a good market garden going with plenty fresh vegetables being grown.

“At intu Braehead we see ourselves as playing a part in the local community and supporting this project is just one of the ways in which we are doing this.”

Author

Founder of Paisley.org.uk in 1998 and constantly strives to change peoples attitudes to the town, Brian is a self described Paisley Digital Champion who promotes Paisley via any means necessary. You can also follow me on X