UK: Berry Gardens add fun and flavour to schools

The Garden Club at Penshurst C E Primary School was one of the many schools in the UK to benefit from a scheme to get more schools interested in growing food. Berry Gardens and grower member R. W. Walpole linked with the Sun Newspapers sponsored the Schools Gardening Scheme by providing strawberry plants. The scheme has inspired many children in schools up and down the country.

Penshurst C E Primary School took maximum benefit from the offer and produced some prize-winning strawberries for its local country show. The gardening club, run by Claire Rees, a teacher at the school, had a bumper year winning 2nd prize for the delicious berries grown from the fledgling plants provided by Berry Gardens.

"The enthusiasm shown by everyone at the school is reflected in the success we had at our Village Flower Show. Not only did we have success with the delicious strawberries but we also won and placed second and third with a number of other fruit and vegetables." Claire said.

"This is a fantastic achievement by our pupils. Our biggest challenge was making sure we had enough strawberries to display for the show as the children were eating at least one strawberry for every one selected for the competition." Claire continued.

Berry Gardens, managing director, Nick Marston commented, "Schemes such as this provide a great educational tool for children in understanding how food grows and where it comes from. The children get to grow and eat lovely strawberries. This adds to an appreciation of our food chain and encourages the growers of tomorrow."

A number of schools from across the country participated in Berry Gardens' ‘Strawberries for Schools' programme, adding fun and flavour to education.