Kids Country takes Great Casterton Primary School through the field-to-fork journey of potatoes
Sandra Lauridsen, education manager at Kids Country, and Caroline Williams, agronomy manager at Burgess Farms, led a field-to-fork session for 30 children at Great Casterton Primary School, near Stamford, this month. The hands-on session included talking about all of the people involved in the potato supply chain, the potato plant and its growing stages, as well as potato nutrition and healthy eating.
Sally Gooding, EYFS teacher at Great Casterton Primary School, said: “As part of our ‘People Who Help Us’ topic, on Tuesday we were lucky enough to have a visit from Sandra and Caroline at Kids Country. Farmer Caroline talked to us about where our vegetables came from and all the important different jobs that the people growing our food do. The farmers taught us all about the growing process of the potato, they even checked up on some potatoes we are growing!”
The Kids Country and Burgess Farms team talked the Key Stage 1 children through all the people that are involved in the process of farming and processing potatoes, for the school’s own ‘people that help us’ event. This included: farmer, agronomist, tractor driver, sprayer, pack house staff, forklift driver, factory staff, distribution staff, supermarket staff, and then finally the consumer.
Sandra Lauridsen, education manager at Kids Country, which is the East of England Agricultural Society’s education programme, said: “It is great to get into schools and not only talk children through the incredible field-to-fork journey of the humble potato, but also to get children excited about all the different jobs involved. Who knows, this may inspire future farmers and distribution experts – and if we can get children enthused about growing food and making good nutritional decisions, then that’s a job well done as far as we are concerned.”
Sandra continued: “It is important to us at Kids Country and the East of England Agricultural Society to encourage children at a young age to get better connected with the food we grow here in the UK. Not only to help them make good food choices as they grow up, but also to have that understanding of the value of British food grown by our amazing farmers. Potatoes are an inexpensive and versatile food staple, so let’s hope we’ve helped these children get excited about them and support our British potato farmers!”
“We have a whole host of tried and tested field-to-fork activities that we can bring into schools, and we are always ready to talk to schools about developing bespoke events too – please do get in touch!”
Kids Country are supported by a range of corporate sponsors and volunteers, local farmers and food producers, and individual volunteers. If you would like your workplace or school to be involved in any way, or to volunteer as an individual please contact slauridsen@eastofengland.org.uk
To keep up to date with upcoming Kids Country events, please visit our events page or follow Kids Country UK on Facebook, twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn.
