British potato growers urged to reconnect with schools

The British potato industry is being encouraged to get behind two educational projects from Potato Council, to ensure that potatoes continue to feature in the daily lives of the nation.

Grow Your Own Potatoes, which is now in its eighth year, is one of the most popular growing projects for key stage 1 and 2 pupils at Primary Schools. Over 12,000 schools have already signed up to participate but Potato Council is aiming to increase numbers before registration closes in February.
 Sue Lawton, education co-ordinator for Potato Council, said: “The project has been one of our biggest campaign successes, bringing potatoes to life for over one million pupils to date. For 2012, each school will receive a newly designed presentation box, which contains everything they need to chit, plant, grow and harvest two varieties of potatoes.

“We’re delighted to have eight seed potato suppliers working with us again this year, donating free seed potatoes to schools throughout the country, which means every region has a different variety to grow. This support is crucial and we’re also asking that growers, packers and suppliers help by bringing the project to the attention of their customers, friends and relatives. We have a new generation of teachers and children in the classroom since the project started, so we need to keep getting the message through to schools and help them discover the wonders of potatoes.”
 Literature is available for levy payers to drop in to schools or pass onto children, grandchildren or friends to take into school. Even more rewarding is assisting with planting and harvesting events and Potato Council can help put schools in touch with growers and processors who are happy to offer advice or a talk or even host a school trip. Alternatively, growers can promote the project website www.gyop.potato.org.uk, where schools can register directly and find an extensive range of supporting on-line resources and activities.

But that isn’t where the educational work ends for Potato Council. The addition of a new project, ‘Cook Your Own Potatoes’ for secondary schools means that it is building an affinity between children and potatoes at every key stage of their education.

The project equips students with basic food preparation and cooking skills and provides them with useful information on nutrition. After a successful pilot, the scheme has been introduced nationwide to positive feedback from food technology teachers, who are keen for more resources to help deliver engaging and factual lessons.

Lesson plans, skills and recipe videos, fact sheets and many other resources about nutrition are available at www.cyop.potato.org.uk. New exciting modules will be added during the school year to include, taste, versatility and sustainability.

Sue added: “Education is a core strand of our marketing activity, after all habits formed at a young age are more likely to endure. We know that younger consumers are eating fewer potatoes than their parents and both Grow Your Own and Cook Your Own Potatoes gives us a very good chance to redress this balance and build a strong customer base for the future.”