Vitacress takes children from Farm to Fork
On Friday 5th June Vitacress, the UK’s leading producer of fresh herbs, hosted their second ‘Farm to Fork’ visit as part of the Tesco Happy Eat Project.
A group of 17 pupils from years three and four at St Ives School in Haslemere visited the Vitacress Herbs Nursery in Runcton, where they learnt all about herbs and their uses. During their visit, the pupils were able to see how herbs are grown, as well as learning how they can be used to flavour and enhance food, as part of a healthy balanced diet.
During the interactive experience the pupils were provided with a tour of the Vitacress greenhouses, where they were able to delve deeper into the growing process of the large variety of fresh herbs which are grown at Runcton.
The pupils were also given the chance to pot some parsley seeds, which they have taken back to school, to see and learn more about how they grow. Once their tour was over the school was provided with a range of herbs to take back to the classrooms, where the pupils can carry out taste tests, food pairing and cooking.
The visit took place as part of a nationwide programme of Farm to Fork trails to educate children about where their food comes from. Farm to Fork is the first initiative of the Tesco Eat Happy Project, a major new education programme that is committed to improving children’s relationship with food.
As part of their involvement in the Tesco Happy Eat Project Vitacress has developed a selection of curriculum based worksheets for children, as well as hosting farm visits. These worksheets have been created in conjunction with the British Nutrition Foundation and can be found on the Tesco Eat Happy Website (http://www.eathappyproject.com). As the initiative grows, Vitacress plans to roll out further school visits across its salad and herbs farms around the south west.
Ann Tenison, Marketing and Communications Manager at Vitacress said, “We’re pleased to have hosted a second Farm to Fork trail at our Runcton herb nursery. At Vitacress we strongly believe in the necessity to educate the next generation and help encourage a healthy lifestyle with children. Herbs are an important part of flavouring meals, and as they grow up these pupils will find themselves using fresh herbs as part of their daily eating and cooking routines. Hopefully this visit has given them a better understanding of the food they eat and where it comes from. We are thrilled to continue our support of the Tesco Happy Eat Project and look forward to welcoming more schools to our farms around the country.”