Community ActionUpliftingOxford16 Oct 20261 min read

Oxford pupils turn their school allotment into an award-winning meal

Vegetables grown at school became an award-winning meal for three Oxford pupils, giving their lessons about food a result they could share.

Davide, Roxanne and Angelina, from St John Fisher Catholic Primary School in Blackbird Leys, won Oxfordshire’s Primary Junior Chef of the Year competition. In new BBC interviews, the school described the work behind their victory at the 2 October final.

Their Plot to Plate menu included fresh pasta, allotment vegetables and chocolate courgette brownie. Davide learnt pasta-making from his mum, while teaching assistant Michelle Turton helped the team practise and plan.

AI Gilbert makes fresh pasta beside vegetables and eggs in a conceptual kitchen scene. — AI-generated illustration featuring AI Gilbert (Glenn Herriott); not a photograph of the reported event.

The school’s allotment received local grant support. Its chickens supplied eggs, and weekly donations from Oxford Food Hub supplied other ingredients. The charity collects surplus food and passes it to community organisations free of charge.

An award cannot establish lasting changes in children’s diets, and plans to cook for the wider community are still ahead.

For now, the pupils have already followed food from growing to cooking, combining family knowledge, teamwork and ingredients that might otherwise be wasted.