Eat
Drink
Learn &
Grow.
The Kent School of Food Community Interest Company has developed a unique non-profit model.
Our model:
Responds to pressing concerns for physical, mental & educational health.
Connects community, education & environment.
Supports the local food economy and sustainable food production.
Secures the future of a heritage pub, re-establishing its connection with the land and community.
INITIAL SKETCHES WITH THANKS TO HOLLAWAY STUDIOS
The Yard - home of the Kent School of Food - is perched on the Kent Downs with spectacular views across an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
This is a place where time stands still.
For centuries, pubs have played a valuable role in British culture and community. Today that value is threatened as many struggle for survival.
Our model aims to re-establish the historic connection between pub, landscape, community and local school children.
We intend to restore and lovingly update this grade II listed country pub and garden, remaining true to its past while investing in the future.
This listed building will be reimagined in order to re-establish a deep sense of connection with landscape and community.
The Yard at Bodsham
a welcoming heritage pub and restaurant serving local food cooked using produce, grown in our gardens with the help of local school children and the community.
The Kent School of Food
a food & environmental education hub, providing learning opportunity to children and adults, from farm to fork, supporting understanding of the health benefits of growing, cooking & eating well through our gardens & training kitchen.
The income generated by the pub, restaurant and adult courses will be used to support the cost of educational opportunities making every customer a philanthropist.
What is the Kent School of Food?
THE KENT SCHOOL OF FOOD IS A COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY (CIC) WHICH WILL MANAGE THE RUNNING OF BOTH THE COMMERCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL ELEMENTS OF THE YARD AT BODSHAM TO CREATE A SUSTAINABLE SOCIAL ENTERPRISE MODEL.
We will support the environmental and nutritional education of children and the community from farm to fork linking this opportunity with the food served in our pub and restaurant.
Owing to its central position between Canterbury, Ashford and Folkestone, there are 32 primary and secondary schools within a 10-mile radius of Bodsham. We will offer education opportunities to people of all ages through our kitchen garden, permaculture market garden and training kitchen. We will offer lessons and courses that link with the national curriculum across multiple disciplines, supporting a more integrated approach to learning for children through the lens of environment and food production.
Our lessons will teach how to grow food and prepare dishes which appear on our restaurant menu, building an understanding of the food economy and a sense of contribution to it.
We will build a further education traineeship programme in our permaculture market garden, working with surrounding farms and smallholdings to provide employment and training opportunities within the community.
We will nurture this unique place as a hub for the sharing of local expertise about land and food production.
What is The Yard?
A WELCOMING LOCAL PUB, SERVING HOMEGROWN AND LOCAL FOOD, BENEFITING THE ENVIRONMENT, THE LOCAL ECONOMY AND EDUCATION.
We want to restore this beautiful pub using heritage materials and methods whilst adding a new restaurant that will link it with the landscape in which it sits.
Our aim to create a place where everyone feels welcome whether for a pint at the bar or a meal in the restaurant. We will use homegrown produce to deliver good food and drink for all the community.
Our head chef and education chef will work together with commitment to a Kent-based menu (including local ales and wines) that supports our local suppliers and means we can be 100% honest about the provenance of the ingredients.
Our unique CIC model will make every one of our customers a philanthropist as they support the broader environmental and educational aims of The Kent School of Food.
Why is Funding Required?
BRINGING NEW LIFE INTO OLD BONES.
Working with an award-winning architect and landscape designer, our plans bring together the multiple layers of this model in a way that respects the heritage of the site, supporting sustainable objectives for the environment and the organisation.
This includes the restoration and extension of the building, using traditional materials for work on the listed building whilst extending to connect with the landscape and provide the necessary facilities.
With the help of an award-winning Kent-based landscape gardener and agro-ecologist, we will create an accessible, educational, community kitchen garden. Over time, and in response to the environment, we will cultivate a 4-acre permaculture market garden to serve the Kent School of Food and the local community.
It is our ambition to be a net positive location, integrating sustainable energy systems such as discreet solar panelling, rainwater capture and greywater systems to irrigate our kitchen garden, supporting nature recovery through land management.
We will employ an experienced and dedicated team to establish and deliver this unprecedented non-profit organisational model.
“We want to give renewed purpose to a rural pub, growing our own produce in our permaculture market garden and cooking delicious, nutritious food for our customers.”
— ANDREW JENKINSON
DIRECTOR
“Our local community is rich with knowledge about this beautiful agricultural landscape. We want to create a place where that knowledge can be valued and shared.”
— REBECCA SMITH
DIRECTOR & CHILDREN’S AUTHOR
“Uniquely, The Yard will be a hub for the sharing of expertise about the land and the food it produces, providing opportunities for children and the community to get involved and learn about food from farm to fork.”
— PAUL NEWTON
DIRECTOR & HEADTEACHER OF BODSHAM SCHOOL