Kids Country, the East of England Agricultural Society’s education initiative, delivered a series of their popular ‘Breakfast with Kids Country’ workshops at 3 primary schools earlier this month.
More than 200 Key Stage 1 and 2 children spent the day taking part in hands-on workshops, covering everything from consumer choice by tasting free-range, rare breed pork sausages and premium supermarket sausages; to making tasty pancakes from scratch, students also visited Farmer James in the ‘metre square farm’ learning about what goes into growing a healthy breakfast, and popped out to the playground to see Farmer Ruth with her tractor, in a series of interactive teamwork and communication orientated activities.
The event focused on the importance of using locally produced, seasonal food, in our diets as much as possible to minimise food miles and promote healthy eating, while understanding the role of the farmer plays in bringing that food from field to fork.
Jo Anderson, Principal, Welland Academy “thank you to the Kids Country team today. It was extremely well organised the children and staff loved it and got a lot from it”
Sandra Lauridsen, Education Manager for Kids Country, said: “We are passionate about helping children to understand food, farming and the countryside in the East of England, where we are surrounded by some of the most productive farmland and producers in the country. Children are the consumers of the future and to understand that food comes from a farm, not the supermarket, and the process of producing that food, is essential to making better informed consumer decisions.”
Ladies in Pigs Chairwoman Debbie Wilson said: “We are delighted to once again be supporting Breakfast with Kids Country following the success of the partnership in previous years in raising awareness of how tasty, versatile and wholesome pork is. LIPs understands the need for educating future generations and produces an activity booklet for children called ‘The Pig Issue’, which also contains healthy eating information, as this is now part of the school curriculum”
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farmer James Burgess said: “For me, it’s also really exciting that Breakfast with Kids Country also fits in with key elements of the national curriculum from a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) point of view, and that children from all backgrounds, especially from city-based schools like Welland Academy, are shown that there are actually amazing career options in the agricultural industry, whether that’s in science, engineering, digital technology, or hands-on, on the farm.”
Sandra added: “We are proud of the strong links that we have with schools, farms and food producers across the East of England, and we would like to thank our main donors Central Coop, Marriage’s Millers, Vine House farm and local farmer Thomas Beazley.”
If you would like to be involved in future Kids Country food and farming events, either as a school, corporate or individual volunteer, or as a sponsor to help more schools experience the hands-on and memorable learning that Kids Country offers, please contact slauridsen@eastofengland.org.uk
To keep up to date with upcoming Kids Country events and the new 2024-25 academic year programme, you can also visit: https://www.eastofengland.org.uk/kids-country/ or follow the East of England Agricultural Society on Facebook, X, Instagram or LinkedIn.
