Veg Power initiative teaches kids about growing their own tomatoes
Veg Power’s ‘Growing to Love’ campaign is returning to primary schools this week, with 24,000 children set to benefit from the tomato-growing project designed to support vegetable acceptance and learning across the UK.
#GrowingtoLove is back for its fourth year and is described as a firm favourite with pupils, parents and schools due to its hands-on nature, ease of implementation and curriculum compliance.
As with previous years, the campaign is backed by a range of experts including TV and radio presenter Sam Nixon and former Blue Peter gardener Chris Collins. Veg Power’s ongoing collaboration with Aardman Animations sees Shaun the Sheep also featuring in the campaign.
This year’s campaign has been supported by Abbey View, Ocado, Waitrose, Sakata and EVG.
Learning tomato growing
As part of the initiative some 24,000 primary school children across the UK will take ownership and responsibility for growing their own tomato plant at the beginning of the summer term.
Children will plant tomato seeds in school and bring the seedlings home to nurture them over the summer holidays. Once they return to school in the autumn, the tomatoes will be ready to harvest and eat.
The campaign is fully supported with all participating schools receiving a ‘Growing to Love’ pack to aid its implementation. Pupils involved this year will also have the opportunity to take part in a new video journey feature. With the support of La Serra, the children will be taken to a modern tomato farm to learn about where the tomatoes bought from stores come from.
The ‘Growing to Love’ packs were developed in conjunction with the growing resource expertise of Westland and members of Veg Power’s multi-disciplinary, cross-sector alliance including nutrition, behavioural psychologists and education experts.
The packs contain all the necessary growing materials including window sill propagation kits, seeds, organic vegetable feed, peat-free compost and plant labels.
To support teachers, the packs also contain a range of resources including a ‘practical guide to growing’ handbook, instructional videos, and curriculum-compliant lesson plans for each year group such as seasonality and where tomatoes come from around the world.
More information is available for teachers, parents, carers, and children at growingtolove.com along with tomato growing-inspired arts and crafts projects including plant pot sleeves, reward charts and crowns.
Popular initiative
The level of support provided to implement the campaign featured within Veg Power’s school survey from last year’s evaluation, which highlighted that:
- 99 per cent of schools found the programme easy to deliver
- 96 per cent of schools found ‘Growing to Love’ helped them to deliver the curriculum
- 98 per cent wished to repeat the campaign in school.
Dan Parker, chief executive at Veg Power, said: “Growing to Love is a huge hit for pupils, parents and teachers. Every year we receive amazing feedback about the benefits it provides to learning and how much fun the pupils have taking on the tomato growing task.
”The children are so proud about what they have achieved, taking ownership of and nurturing their own tomato plants. We’re always delighted to receive such positive feedback, especially when we know it is leading to vegetable acceptance and a greater appreciation of where food comes from.”
