Food – a fact of life: Food and farming

Launch of Food and farming module

Do children really believe that potatoes grow on trees? Well, if they did before, there is no reason why they should do now! The new module of the Food – a fact of life website, to be launched in London on Thursday 20th September 2007, provides all the information children need to find out how their food is grown. There is absolutely no excuse for any ‘concrete children’ from now onwards!

Last week, HRH The Prince of Wales, welcomed the Year of Food and Farming campaign (which started in September 2007), of which he is Patron. The Prince said:

“One of the more alarming aspects of recent times is that there appears to have been a growing disconnection of young people from the land. This has many consequences, not least that too many children have no idea where their food comes from or how it is grown. We need to change this.”

The Food and farming module has been developed by the British Nutrition Foundation, in association with 5 levy boards who have given their expertise and provided illustrations and information. The celebration event will be attended by representatives of the levy boards and the Foundation, as well as by a range of educationalists.

Stephanie Valentine, Education Director of the British Nutrition Foundation, says: “These resources will support busy teachers and are linked with the schools curriculum in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The bi-monthly podcasts are already very popular. The recipes, videos and interactive activities in particular will make sure that children learn and have fun at the same time.”

The new module includes up-to-date, accurate and consistent information on food and farming for UK primary schools, such as:

*teachers’ guides, with curriculum links;
*child friendly worksheets;
*colour photographs;
*recipes;
*PowerPoint presentations;
*interactive whiteboard activities;
*cooking and farming videos.
Best of all, these resources can be downloaded free from www.foodafactoflife.org.uk

To date nearly 1,000,000 resources have been downloaded free of charge for use in the classroom.