UKHarvest join VegPowerUK and Barfoots for a veg-ucational experience at Bersted Green School, Bognor 

To mark Food Waste Action Week last week, Sian Georegou, Education Officer and Donna Martin, Community Engagement Officer joined the students and staff at Bersted Green School to celebrate the joy of vegetables. Eat Them to Defeat Them, a nationwide campaign run by VegPowerUK and sponsored by ITV encourages young people to eat more vegetables. The team at VegPowerUK, along with Barfoots, Sussex-based food producers were also there to deliver a morning of engaging and exciting activities raising both awareness of food waste, and to grow a lifelong love of eating vegetables.  

Donna and Sian joined nearly 30 year 3 students in a morning filled with arts and crafts, games and quizzes and all-round collaboration allowing the students to explore what food waste is, and how impactful it is to our communities and our environment. This worked brilliantly with the interactive activities bought by Kim Barfoot-Brace, Brand and Marketing manager at Barfoots. Kim bought a selection of fresh produce grown at Barfoots, allowing the children a chance to examine, explore and investigate what Barfoots grow, and how these vegetables can be used to make incredible meals at home. Kim shared that "It was fantastic to partner with UKHarvest and VegPowerUK on a local school visit. Getting kids excited about veg and where it comes from, whilst connecting that with understanding the importance of reducing food waste felt incredibly positive."

The team at VegPowerUK, including Suraya Ulrich-Khan, Project/Schools Manager bought their green screen to create some amazing videos of the students eating and interacting vegetables with some great back drops.  

Having spent the morning with such an engaged group of students, who shared lots of laughter and smiles as well as learning more about vegetables, where they come from as well as understanding how to waste less food at home, Sian Georgeou said that “Our morning at Bersted Green Primary School was so lovely. The students and staff really engaged with the activities we bought along and it was incredible to see how the students really took the message of reducing food waste home with them. Working with organisations like VegPowerUK and Barfoots is an incredible opportunity for us to come together with like minded people who have healthy eating, food production and reducing food waste at the forefront of their agenda.“ 

The day was a huge success with students taking home a range of vegetables, some familiar but some that they’d never seen before. And hopefully lots of ideas about how to use more veg at home and help reduce the amount of food that gets thrown away everyday. 

Donna Martin, Community Engagement Officer, working with children of Bersted Green Primary School for Food Waste Action Week