More than 50,000 primary school students will take part in the National Farmers’ Union’s (NFU’s) Harvest Live festival this week, on September 28 and 29.
The aim of the festival is to teach primary school children to use the basic principles of a healthy and balanced diet to prepare dishes from fresh British produce.
The fun, hands-on experience aims to engage pupils as well as teach them about seasonality, show them how the food they eat is grown, reared, caught and processed, and gives them the chance to ask the expert panel any questions they have about food and farming.
The Harvest Festival live will happen in two sessions.
The first session – ‘Harvest rainbow adventure’ – will take place on Tuesday, September 28, at 11:00a.m, and will last roughly 30 minutes.
This session is for children between the ages of five and seven, and aims to teach a basic understanding of where food comes from and the principles of a healthy and varied diet in making dishes.
This sessions’ expert panel comprises:
- Gary from Valley Grown Salads;
- Zoe Mee, blueberry farmer;
- Andrew Burgess, carrot farmer.
The second session – ‘Harvest Pizza quest’ – takes place a day later on Wednesday, September 29, at 11:00a.m.
This session is for those aged between seven and eleven and its learning objectives include understanding and applying the principles of a healthy and varied diet, preparing and cooking a variety of predominantly savoury dishes using a range of cooking techniques and understanding seasonality; where and how ingredients are grown, reared, caught and processed.
It was last roughly 45 minutes and the expert panel comprises:
- Olly Harrison, arable farmer;
- Richard Davenport, dairy farmer;
- Lucy Jarrett from Eat Lean;
- Mandy Kitchingman from Joseph Heller dairy.
Both events are free and interactive, with work and quiz sheets to match.
Commenting on the festival, NFU President Minette Batters said: “Understanding where our food comes from is fundamental to creating a healthy, balanced diet.
These sessions are absolutely crucial in helping the future generation learn about the farm to fork process – such as seeing how cheese is made – and using a range of cooking techniques to create a delicious meal.
“Bringing food and farming into the classroom in such a practical way has two major benefits; firstly, by creating real life experiences to learn from and second, giving them insight into agriculture and inspiring them to think about food and farming as an exciting career choice.
“It’s great to see the continued success of our live lessons, from our Science Week Live Lessons earlier in the year, to now reaching over 50,000 students in our biggest ever harvest festival – it’s fantastic to know we are connecting with so many students up and down our country with British food and farming at the heart.”
