Media Release
B-Alternative Sponsors Farm My School’s “Grow Our Future” Official Launch
B-Alternative sponsors Farm My School’s zero waste launch event on Thursday 6 April 2023.
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Imagine a school that can feed its community. A farm built within a school. Well it’s happening. As seen in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald last week, Farm My School (FMS) is a not-for-profit, working to transform unused land within schools, into regenerative market gardens.
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The first school piloted for this program is Bellarine Secondary College Drysdale Campus on Wadawurrung country.
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Over the last 9 months, co-founders James McLennan, Ben Shaw and local volunteers have converted an old dusty unused soccer pitch into a fully functioning vegetable farm. The land is now thriving with zucchinis, capsicums, squash, tomatoes of all varieties and more. And now, they are ready to celebrate their success with the community.
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The project will officially launch with the Grow Our Future festival at the school on Thursday April 6, with live music from Formidable Vegetable, FMS ambassador Costa Georgiadis (Gardening Australia) as well as Matt Germanchis (Totti’s Lorne) and Jo Barrett (Little Picket).
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As environmental conservationists, it is vital to co-founders James McLennan and Ben Shaw that FMS’s launch event leaves the smallest impact on the environment. Hence why they’ve called on the support of specialists in zero-waste event management, B-Alternative.
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Since 2015, B-Alternative’s reusable model has assisted events to eliminate up to 96% of waste to landfill, leading the transition towards the future of ‘leave no trace’ events. Based in Melbourne, working with clients all over Australia, and a global reach, B-Alternative is a social enterprise that cultivates awareness of environmental issues and provides low-impact alternatives to businesses, organisations and events.
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As a social enterprise B-Alternative provides their services in-kind to select events throughout the year. For Founder & Director Jace Rahilly it was a no-brainer to support this start-up initiative, “We believe in a progressive future that incorporates reducing food miles, ethical human practices, regenerative practices, respect to our Traditional Owners and reducing our environmental impact. FMS stands for all these principals and more. We are proud to work alongside groups like Farm My School.”
This will be the first event B-Alternative and Farm My School will be partnering on, however it will not be the last. Both organisations are deeply grounded in regenerative and community principles and will work together in schools, businesses and the community in the future. In fact, B-Alternative staff have already volunteered for a day picking ripe vegetables down at the Drysdale farm.
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For tickets to Grow Our Future Festival head to humantix: https://events.humanitix.com/farm-my-school-official-launch All proceeds go towards Farm My School.
If you are coming along, you can help create a zero waste event in the following ways:
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Reduce or eliminate plastic you bring to site, especially plastic bottles and food packaging
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Choose to reuse where possible, including BYO reusable water bottles and containers
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Keep it clean! Separate your waste out so we can recycle as much as possible. Avoid putting butts in bottles, food in landfill, and plastic in the compost.
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When in doubt, ask! Our friendly staff are there to help you.
If your event, school or business are ready to go alternative contact awesome@b-alternative.com to be the change you want to see.
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Quotes:
“We believe in a progressive future that incorporates reducing food miles, ethical human practices, regenerative practices, respect to our Traditional Owners and reducing our environmental impact. FMS stands for all these principals and more. We are proud to work alongside groups like Farm My School.” Jason Rahilly, Founder and Director of B-Alternative
Media contacts:
For further information and quotes, please contact -
James McLennan:
0431 583 354
Amy Tobin:
0433 760 889
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