This week, secondary school pupils from across London mixed with professional traders and hosted their own stalls in Borough Market, serving homemade soup and bread to Londoners on their lunch break as part of the annual Young Marketeers Winter Soup Sale.
On Tuesday 3 February, young people aged 11–16 stepped into the role of market traders for the day, raising £580 for Borough Market’s long-standing partner charity, Plan Zheroes, which redistributes quality surplus food to organisations supporting vulnerable communities across the capital.
In the lead-up to the event, pupils attended a training day at Bread Ahead where they learned how to make ciabatta bread with the Bread Ahead bakers and developed soup recipes with School Food Matters. They also worked alongside the Borough Market team to learn what it takes to run a successful market stall, from food preparation and pricing to teamwork and customer engagement.
The Winter Soup Sale forms part of the Young Marketeers programme, a long-running partnership between Borough Market and School Food Matters. The programme gives pupils hands-on experience of growing, cooking and selling food, helping them to understand the value of seasonal eating, the importance of reducing food waste and the confidence that comes from cooking from scratch.
As a charitable trust, Borough Market places education and community engagement at the heart of its work. Through workshops with the Market’s expert traders the Young Marketeers programme connects young Londoners with where food comes from and how it is produced, prepared and sold, knowledge designed to stay with them well beyond their time at the Market.
Bethan Davies, Head of Communications & Marketing at Borough Market, said: “Creating opportunities like this for young Londoners is central to our purpose as a charitable trust. The Young Marketeers Winter Soup Sale gave pupils the chance to build real skills and confidence, while supporting Plan Zheroes’ vital work redistributing good food across the city. It was a powerful example of how food can bring people together, reduce waste and make a positive difference in our communities.”
Stephanie Slater MBE, Founder and Chief Executive of School Food Matters, said: “For nearly fifteen years, Young Marketeers has demonstrated the power of hands-on food education. By growing and cooking food, learning how to bring it to market and sharing that experience with others, young people build skills, confidence and positive relationships with food that they carry with them into adulthood. Projects like this matter because they support children’s long-term health and happiness.”
Since summer 2024, proceeds from Young Marketeers sales at Borough Market have supported Plan Zheroes, a London-based food redistribution charity that rescues quality surplus food and delivers it to organisations supporting people in need across the capital.
The Winter Soup Sale builds on a decade-long partnership between Borough Market and Plan Zheroes, with volunteers collecting surplus food from traders six days a week. Together, the partnership has saved more than 150 tonnes of food from landfill, the equivalent of over 360,000 platefuls redistributed to Londoners who need it most.
For further details, visit:
https://boroughmarket.org.uk/events/school-food-matters-soup-sale/