AHDB food programme delivers impactful education to UK school children
2nd June 2023
School children up and down the country have learnt about healthy eating and how food is produced through AHDB’s Food – a fact of life (FFL) education programme, which has been deemed ‘invaluable’ by teachers as an extension of the national curriculum.
The programme offers free teaching material to educators of children 3 to 16 years old, built on a combination of AHDB’s expertise in farming and how food is produced in the UK and input from the British Nutrition Foundation on nutrition and healthy eating.
Demand for the programme surged as children moved from classroom to home learning during the pandemic and remained high since. FFL resources hit 1.3 million downloads last year only, bringing the total number to over four million in the last three years.
And integral part of the programme is teacher training to ensure educators feel confident and well-informed when delivering informative food-based lessons that are age appropriate and in line with national curriculums.
In-person training events this year were attended by 250 educators across venues in England, Scotland and Wales, with 100% going away more informed about food education and 99% taking ideas back to the classroom to implement.
AHDB has received positive feedback regarding the quality of these events, with many attendees saying farmers were their favourite part of the day, describing presenters as “thought-provoking” and offering a “fascinating insight into farming”.
A virtual conference was also hosted in Northern Ireland along with 12 teacher training webinars and workshops held nationally on topics like cooking on a budget and basic food skills.
AHDB’s head of education, Roz Reynolds, said: “AHDB is committed to its levy investment in education and through partnerships like Food – a fact of life, we are able to deliver facts about food and farming directly to teachers and into schools.
“This is incredibly important as our younger generations are the consumers of the future. By learning the real story behind their shopping baskets now, we can bring consumers closer to the food they buy and enjoy, while leaving less room for inaccuracies and mistruths we so often see in wider society.”
The programme is only one element of AHDB’s education strategy, which also includes sponsoring LEAF’s Open Farm Sunday and partnering on Countryside Classroom which aims to connect food, farming and the environment.”
Frances Meek, education services manager at the British Nutrition Foundation, explained: “Introducing healthy eating habits early on can help children develop a good relationship with food and equip them with information to have a healthy balanced diet later in life.
“We create all our FFL resources with this in mind so we can support teachers across the UK as they teach pupils about food and nutrition. With teacher training, webinars, dashboards, resources, lesson plans and guidelines, we’ve created FFL to be the hub for everything food teachers and support staff can need to make them lessons engaging and insightful.”
