Waitrose has announced a new initiative to encourage seven to 11-year-olds from across the UK to grow and sell their own fresh produce.
The national 'Grow & Sell' scheme is backed and promoted by celebrity gardener and author Alan Titchmarsh and will see every Waitrose branch in the UK work with four local primary schools giving each a growing kit.
The kit, designed to get vegetable patches started up in schools, includes seeds, equipment and step-by-step growing instructions. Schools will subsequently be invited by their local Waitrose stores to sell the home-grown produce outside branches over the summer.
The national roll-out follows a successful pilot in London last year and the retailer says it hopes the initiative, which is run in association with the Waitrose farm on the Leckford Estate, will reach over 100,000 children nationwide.
Tina Varns, sustainability and ethical sourcing manager at Waitrose, says the scheme promotes the importance of seasonality and impact of bad weather on production to children.
She explained: 'We are really pleased to be rolling this initiative out to all 290 of our branches. Growing at school encourages children to eat well and to go for a wider variety in their food – we believe this is very important as it paves the way for healthy eating.'
Meanwhile, TV presenter Titchmarsh, who was recently hired by Waitrose to help raise the profile of British agriculture, will help the upmarket retailer as it prepares to launch over 6,000 new products in the gardening sector set to help customers grow their own flowers, fruit and vegetables.
Titchmarsh echoed Varns' views and said it is imperative children are taught about the benefits of fresh produce from a young age.
He said: 'Teaching children at an early age about the food they eat and where it comes from is something that I'm very passionate about – we've all read shocking statistics about how many nowadays do not know what chips are made from or that a blackberry is a type of fruit and not just a phone.'
