Looking Back to the Future
“The ambition and the model built by the Kent School of Food team is truly inspiring. This model protects the environment by not only employing agroecology principles but supporting public understanding of how we can produce food well.”
Ruth Galpine, Director of Healthy and Sustainable Diets at the Soil Association
In this first blog we want to give an insight into the deeper motivation that has inspired the model of The Kent School of Food at The Yard.
From 1961 to 2023 the name of the pub at Bodsham reflected the history of the site as a timber yard where timber from the nearby Evington Estate was cut into batons (or batts) to be used for building. But it is the earlier name of this historic pub – The Prince of Wales - that points to its future.
In the opening passage of his inspirational book Harmony - A New Way of Looking at the World, the Prince of Wales - now His Majesty the King – wrote,
“Revolution, is a strong word, and I use it deliberately. The many environmental and social problems that now loom large on our horizon cannot be solved by carrying on with the very approach that has caused them. If we want to hand on to our children and grandchildren a much more durable way of operating in the world, then we have to embark on what I can only describe as a ‘Sustainability Revolution’ – and with some urgency. This will involve our taking all sorts of dramatic steps to change that way we consider the world and act in it, but I believe we have the capacity to take these steps. All we have to see is that the solutions are close at hand.”
The word harmony speaks to the interconnectedness of the world’s systems and the vital balance that ensures the health of those systems. These systems have, until very recently, dictated the rhythm of everyday life. But we have lost our way. Modern technologies connect us virtually, providing a sense of global connection and driving a global marketplace that we all tap into, but those virtual and largescale systems have led to a breakdown of local economies and local communities, resulting in an increased sense of isolation and disconnect with community and environment, particularly for young people. This disconnect has devastating consequences for the health of people and planet.
Save the Children research finds that 70% of children in the UK suffer from climate anxiety. But children are more disconnected from the natural world than ever before. Jane Lennon Chairwoman, Coalition for Youth Mental Health in Schools, in her report to the Times Education Commission 2022, stated that, “The tendency for adolescents is to look inward, so you really need lots of things to push you out of yourself. Kids need those things to help them feel ‘I’m part of something else.’”
The ambition of the Kent School of Food CIC is rooted in the need to rediscover and reconnect with the environment, the land, the food it produces and the community it feeds. This is not a new-fangled idea but a reimagining of the traditional purpose of a public house – not only a place for a drink and a meal, but an open door, a community home, a place for the whole community – young and old - to come together and share experience, conversations about the land and the food it produces, creating a trading hub for local producers and consumers and a place where intangible cultural heritage can be passed from one generation to the next.
Offering educational opportunity in the kitchen gardens and the training kitchen, connecting learning with the food served in our pub and restaurant, will support understanding of a circular economy and a sense of contribution to it.
In an environment where 400 pubs closed last year, the Kent School of Food seeks to revive the historic purpose of a public house in a way that serves the future health of the community and the environment. The Yard at Bodsham will be a public house that thrives through the rediscovery of its deeper tradition and social purpose.