Porridge Power will take a youth-led, place-based approach to help secondary school students understand and harness the power of the humble porridge oat, joining the dots between healthy soils, growing nutrient-dense and healthy food, food processing, cooking skills, healthier eating, food enterprise and local supply chains.

The project will involve young people from local secondary schools through their Home Economics departments, working with local organic farmers. Young people will have opportunities to get out on farms and learn about healthy soils and how this relates to growing more nutritious crops. They will be involved in the growing and harvesting the oats through hands-on activities.

Harvested oats will be donated to the schools, which will then organise the milling of the oats. They will use the finished product in cooking skills workshops and will be supported to market and retail their products.

Abi Mordin, Strategic Lead for Propagate, said, “We’re really excited to have been supported by the RSE and Williamson Trust to kickstart this project. We’ll be working with young people and farmers to celebrate the power of porridge!

Oat production used to be widespread in Scotland but has been replaced by primarily livestock and dairy production. We want to explore and celebrate mixed and diverse farming systems and involve young people in not just the production of oats but also innovative and new products that can be made and marketed locally. This system’s approach ticks every box – ecological food production involving people and communities, healthy food, and local supply chains.”