Potato supplier Albert Bartlett has launched a new children’s book to help encourage recycling and promote healthy diets.
‘Sammy & Sally Have a Picnic’ is the third edition in the series, masterminded by Bartlett’s chairman Ronnie Bartlett, and is available online for classrooms and nurseries to download for free.
Author Alfredo Marcantonio, of agency HHM, said: “Our client Ronnie Bartlett, chairman of Albert Bartlett, has long been concerned about the environment and the impact of poor diet, particularly in his native Scotland and felt the only way really to change things was to influence the next generation.”
The books feature a pair of squirrels, created by illustrator Mick Brownfield, who in the third book go on a picnic and collect their rubbish and leftovers at the end of the meal.
They discuss the different recycling dustbins at the picnic site and Sally explains to Sammy what it means to “save something and use it again”.
Bartlett said: “There were very few resources about healthy eating aimed at children at this formative stage back then. We are proud that the first two Sammy and Sally books have played a part in putting across the healthy fresh food message that will, we hope, stay with the youngsters all of their lives.”
Marcantonio said: “[Squirrels] seemed like ideal casting to Mick and me. In urban areas they are forsaking their natural healthy diet of nuts, fruit and vegetables for the contents of bin bags.
“The new book delivers an important message – we must take care of our planet. With the company wedded to traditional farming methods and committed to minimizing its impact on the environment, Ronnie Bartlett’s brief was to use the squirrels’ popularity to introduce nursery age children to ecological and environment issues.”
Albert Bartlett began working with the Scottish government and its Healthy Living initiative in 2007, while Bartlett’s own involvement in various educational initiatives led to the idea for a book that would 'subtly put across a message about healthy eating'.
The company has provided copies of the previous books to the chief medical officer in Northern Ireland, where it proved so successful that the region became the driving force behind the second title in the series “Sammy and Sally grow together”, which reveals how vegetables grow in harmony with the seasons of the year.
