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Families from Cornwall and Middlesbrough are set to learn how to grow, harvest and cook their own fruit and vegetables as part of a new lottery–funded initiative by The Eden Project.

The project is one of 32 to today receive awards from the Big Lottery Fund’s Family Learning programme, which helps parents understand more about how their children learn and encourage adults and children to develop new skills as a family.

Eden, working with a range of partners organisations*, has secured £380,248 for the Seeds, Soup and Sarnies (plant, grow, cook, share, eat!) project. It will see families from China Clay Country around St Austell in Cornwall, and from Abingdon and Ormesby in Middlesbrough learning how to grow and cook their own fruit and veg at venues in their communities, including children’s centres, allotments and gardens and, in Cornwall, at the Eden project itself.

Families taking part will include children, parents and grandparents who will spend time together learning how to container grow fresh produce and swapping tips on cultivating their crops. By the end of the sessions they will have the confidence to plan and create a small garden for vegetables and fruit of their own and will have become more physically active, with improved literacy, numeracy, social and team-building skills.

John Ellison, Head of Education Strategy at the Eden Project, said: “Eden Project, ContinYou, Cornwall Council and the other partners in this project are delighted to receive this funding. It will make a huge difference for local families with opportunities to grow confidence in learning, share new practical skills and participate in their community. “

Also receiving funding today is The Campaign for Learning, which will use £268,911 to offer children and their dads, granddads, step-dads or other male carers enjoyable, innovative and stimulating family learning opportunities in film, animation, new media and technology.

Dads in Demand: Developing a New Family Learning Curriculum for Dads with Dads is being delivered in partnership with The British Film Institute and Futurelab and will be piloted in North Solihull before being extended to locations in Newcastle and London next year. It will include activities such as model and mask making, drama and digital technology to help develop family members’ learning skills relating to language, communication, analysis and ICT.

And families from Sheffield and Oldham will also benefit from today’s funding following an award of £368,016 to the National Children’s Bureau for a project to help young children improve their reading and writing skills.

Making it REAL – Raising Early Achievement in Literacy is targeted at some of the areas’ most excluded families with children aged 3-5 years old. It will involve a range of literacy-based activities such as rhymes and songs, picture recognition, early writing and working with books, which will be delivered in families’ homes and at local children’s centres. A key part of the project is to build the confidence of parents/carers in supporting their children's learning as part of everyday life.

Sanjay Dighe, Chair of the Big Lottery Fund’s England Committee, said: “I’m delighted to announce an investment of more than £6.8m through our Family Learning programme today. This money will help hundreds of families across the country to improve their skills and knowledge and interact more positively with each other. Importantly, it will also help families to get more enjoyment out of learning and encourage them to take part in further learning opportunities in the future.”

For other regional projects awarded funding today please click here 
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Further Information

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours contact: 07867 500 572
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030
Textphone: 0845 6021 659

Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Notes to Editors

• * Partners in the Seeds, Soup and Sarnies (plant, grow, cook, share, eat!) project are the Eden Project, ContinYou, Cornwall Council's Family Learning (CAES) and Family Services, Cornwall Neighbourhoods for Change and Cornwall Centre for Volunteers.
• The Family Learning programme helps parents to understand more about how their children learn and encourages adults and children to learn together as a family. It closed for applications on August 29, 2008.
• Up to £40 million is available through the programme and applicants can apply for grants of a minimum of £10,000 and a maximum of £500,000.
• The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out half the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
• BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since June 2004. The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £22 billion has now been raised and more than 300,500 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.