Green Gown Awards 2016 – Student Engagement – Canterbury Christ Church University – Finalist

Beer, Bread and Honey: Connecting people and place with food and heritage

Our small urban campus, is on the site of the Outer Precincts of St Augustine’s Abbey, which is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site and a scheduled ancient monument.  Archaeology surrounds and constrains us at every turn, but is also a signal to remember and learn from our heritage.

It is the home for the only remaining wall of the ancient Brew/Bake house. An inspiration for us to grow heritage hops, sourced from the national hop collection, supported by the tennis court fence; brew our first Green Chapel Ale in partnership with the Canterbury Brewers; Build a mobile bread oven; isolate yeast strains from our tree bark; and learn the art of bee keeping.  Students have been the life-blood of this project, from individuals to whole student societies.

This project has brought education, food and heritage to life; and has enhanced links to our communities internally and externally.

Top 3 learnings

1 Build your project around curriculum

2 Go out and build connections with academics to make it real

3 A distinctive product, linked to local meaning builds community connections.