Every primary school in the UK will be given the chance to learn more about food and where it comes from as part of a major new food education programme launched today.
Farm to Fork, the first initiative from The Tesco Eat Happy Project, is backed by supporters and partners such as Google, Diabetes UK, the Children’s Food Trust and the NFU.
From the end of February 2014, children from across the UK will be able to go on educational Farm to Fork trails in factories, on farms and in supermarkets, for practical demonstrations of where food comes from and how it is made.
The ambition is to take one million of the five million primary school children in the UK on the Farm To Fork trails in the project’s first year.
Those signed up to take part in the scheme include potato firm Greenvale, salad and vegetable grower G's Produce, and fruit producer Berryworld.
Chris Bush, managing director of Tesco UK, which is putting £15 million towards the scheme, said:“We know parents are concerned that kids don’t always understand how food is made and where it comes from, which is important to developing a strong positive lifelong relationship with food.
'Working closely with teachers, our suppliers and a number of partners including the Children’s Food Trust, we want to help make the relationship primary school kids have with food better, and that’s the aim of the Eat Happy Project. It’s part of our ambition to help all of our customers and colleagues lead healthier lives and just one of the ways we are using our scale to help communities across the UK.”
Peter Kendall, NFU president, said:“The NFU welcomes this initiative, which encourages children to learn more about where their food comes from and the important role British farming has in producing traceable and sustainable food.
'Children of today will become the food-buyers of the future and we hope this scheme helps to increase loyalty and support for British farmers and the high quality food we produce.”
Through technology, classes will also have the opportunity to talk to food suppliers across the world, for example banana growers in Costa Rica, through Google+ hangouts and live video chats, using Google’s Connected Classrooms.
Tesco is also partnering with Sorted Food, Europe’s largest social media cooking channel to engage children with content that makes cooking fun and accessible.
The Tesco Eat Happy Project is described by the retailer as acommitment to improving children’s relationship with food. It forms part of the company’s wider ambition to help and encourage all of its customers and colleagues to lead healthier and more active lives.
The project launches as new research from the Future Foundation reveals that even though 90 per cent of kids say they know which foods are healthy, fewer than 10 per cent achieve their 5 A DAY target.
More than half (52 per cent) believe potatoes count towards the total, and one in ten (10 per cent) also count carrot cake.
