The Discovery Award showcases the best educational exhibits, encouraging visitors to interact with and engage with horticulture. That’s exactly what Student Eats is all about.

By putting growing sites at the heart of campuses, NUS is helping students to integrate sustainability into their curriculums, and even to enhance academic achievement.

Our garden at the Chelsea Flower Show celebrates the value of student-led sustainable food production, focussing on the benefits it brings to education. We’re delighted that the judges have recognised the efforts of the student movement to work towards a fairer food system.

What’s so great about getting this medal is that it recognises a genuinely collaborative effort from across the whole student movement. We didn’t make this garden ourselves.

 From growing the plants, to showcasing produce, to building the garden itself, none of this could have happened without the hard work and dedication of student volunteers from students’ unions all across the country.

We know that two thirds of students try to buy food which is in season in the UK, and the same proportion try to buy locally. It’s easy to see why increasingly environmentally conscious students were attracted to Student Eats.

This medal celebrates the positive impact Student Eats also has on education, and we’re delighted to receive it. Thanks so much to everybody who had a part to play in student-led food growing over the last year. This is such a great showcase of your dedication to growing food together.

The garden was inspired by student projects, including the Cheltenham Chili Company  - a social enterprise that is run by students from the University of Gloucestershire. This doesn’t just engage typical greens. It brings in students from academic backgrounds like marketing, business and design – all coming together to create sustainable enterprise. Building on the success of the Cheltenham Chilli Company, these students are moving into creating their own cider (with the Core Blimey Juice and Cider Company) and honey (via the Oh Bee-hive Enterprise), furthering the reach of student-led social enterprise.