YOUNG gardeners from across the city have been recognised for their creativity and growing skills in this year’s Grow Your Own Grub mealbarrow competition.
The annual competition included a recent public celebration event at Abbey Pumping Station, where around 300 visitors viewed and voted on 15 colourful mealbarrows created by participating schools and community groups.
The 2026 theme, ‘Rainbows’, challenged entrants to use a wide range of colourful fruit and vegetables while exploring healthy eating, sustainability and food growing. Schools were judged in three categories – menu design, their report of how they got on growing the produce, and a public vote – before scores were combined to determine the overall winners.
This year’s overall winner was Inglehurst Junior School, with Stokes Wood Primary School taking second place and Mellor Community Primary School finishing third. Judges were particularly impressed with the range of crops chosen by Inglehurst, including purple kalibos cabbage, golden burpees beetroot and red baron onions.
The competition is organised by staff in the city council’s sustainable schools and public health teams.
Assistant city mayor for health, Cllr Vi Dempster, said: “Congratulations to all the schools, pupils and staff who took part in this year’s Grow Your Own Grub competition. The enthusiasm, creativity and commitment on display were outstanding.
"Projects like this help children learn where food comes from, encourage them to try new fruit and vegetables and promote healthy habits that can last a lifetime. At the same time, they develop important skills around sustainability, teamwork and environmental responsibility.
"The competition is a fantastic example of how Leicester’s schools are helping to support healthier communities while inspiring the next generation to grow, cook and eat nutritious food."
Helen Wilkes, a teaching assistant at Inglehurst Junior School said: "Our Ready, Steady, Grow! club is incredibly proud to be named the overall winners of this year’s competition. The pupils put so much thought and hard work into researching, planning and designing their mealbarrow, and encouraging friends and family to support us, so it is amazing to see their hard work recognised.”
Grow Your Own Grub forms part of Leicester City Council’s wider work to encourage sustainable food growing and healthy lifestyles. The initiative supports the ambitions of the city’s Food Plan by helping residents to develop food-growing skills and increasing awareness of healthy, sustainable diets. It also complements Leicester’s Get Growing programme, which promotes community food cultivation across the city, and the Sustainable Schools initiative, which encourages children and young people to take positive action on environmental issues.
Organisers also praised the schools and groups taking part for the high quality of their entries and welcomed several newcomers to the competition this year, alongside schools that have taken part every year for the past four years.
Prizes and certificates will be presented to winning schools at the start of the autumn term.