Pupils at a Boston primary school will learn all about how vegetables grow and what goes on in a food factory this term.
In doing so, they’ll be the first ever members of the Freshtime Fun Club, a new project to encourage healthy eating and teach Lincolnshire children about the food that’s grown on their doorstep.
The project is being launched on Friday (9 May) at Boston West Academy by Freshtime, the Boston-based snack salad and vegetable specialist.
Around 240 pupils at the school will be enrolled in the Freshtime Fun Club as part of a whole term of vegetable-related activities.
Freshtime will be providing the children with weekly snack packs of vegetables as well as balloons, bookmarks and a monthly activity sheet.
The firm is also donating equipment for the school’s allotment and polytunnel, and on 19 June the pupils will make a visit to the factory on Marsh Lane in Boston to see salads, snacks and meals being prepared.
Later that day Key Stage 2 pupils will take part in a Dragon’s Den style competition and pitch recipe ideas to a judging panel including Freshtime’s managing director Mark Newton.
Newton said: “We think it’s important that children are taught about where food comes from at an early age so that when they’re older they’ll understand the importance of diet and nutrition.
“Boston is in the heart of the UK’s vegetable growing area but many children will have never made the connection between what they see growing in the fields and the food on their plate.
“We’re launching the Freshtime Fun Club as a pilot at Boston West Academy and we hope that the pupils and the teachers really get something out of it. We plan to roll the scheme out to more Boston area schools next year.”
Freshtime employs around 350 people in Boston and supplies chilled, value added, ready-to-eat salads, snacks, prepared vegetables and deli fillers to leading multiple retailers and food service operators.
