Joe McNamee: How our children can help us fix Ireland's food system

"GIY’s Grow at School programme — establishing school gardens, providing resources and linking garden activities to the curriculum — is a quite brilliant initiative, now flourishing in 700 Irish primary schools, reaching 100,000 children."

Green fingers are thriving at Creagh National School, Ballinasloe — the newly announced 2025 national winner of the SuperValu Let’s GROW initiative. Photo: Andrew Downes, xposure

Having raised one child into adulthood and not broken him entirely, I returned nearly two decades later for another crack, adding two more (18 and 15, respectively) to my portfolio. 

Naturally, there were differences second time around but one commonality remained: I am one of those parents who frets deeply at any slacking on the eating front, especially if they fail to finish or, worse, even start, good home-cooked meals.