In addition to the commercial reasons for taking part in British Food Fortnight, we invite you to use the national celebration as an opportunity to be proactive in educating young people about British food.

In the build up to the Fortnight, over 30,000 schools in the UK are being given information on incorporating cookery and food-related topics into their curriculum teaching and they are being advised to seek help from local retailers and chefs to achieve this. So, chances are there is a school waiting to hear from YOU!

The best people to make the young aware of the diverse and delicious food that Britain has to offer are those who sell and cook it.

Many retailers organise activities for schools every year during British Food Fortnight.

For hot tips on working with schools...

• Host a class visit in your shop: the theme of this year’s British Food Fortnight school activities is teaching children how to shop beyond the sweet-shelves. Give children a tour of your shop explaining where food comes from. Send them home with a shopping list of healthy lunch box recommendations to give to their parents.


• Give a talk in your local school: food can be incorporated into most curriculum subjects. For example, for Primary school children: take in boxes of food and ask children to name the fruit or vegetable, different types of cheese etc. and guess the number of food miles; for Secondary school children: give them advice on making their packed lunches more healthy and interesting; relate the history of food production and retail in your area; or discuss the economics of running a food shop.


• Help set up a fresh food tuck shop in your local school: you supply the food; the school runs the shop!


• Run a competition for children: competitions are always a success. Butchers: design a burger recipe that will be sold in your shop; Greengrocers: create point-of-sale signs showing the food miles of different produce; General stores: ‘Did you know’ Q&A where children have to go round the shop to find the answers. Give cinema tickets or dvd vouchers to the winner.


• Donate ingredients for school cookery lessons: all schools are invited to teach children how to cook during British Food Fortnight. Donating ingredients will provide a valuable service to your community and will win customer loyalty from parents.


• Think about children when planning your sales promotions: child-friendly promotions will encourage parents to visit your store. Some shops have invited a cow to their cheese tastings and staff in urban shops have dressed up in cow costumes!

Here are some examples of how retailers have worked with schools in previous years

• Youngsters from St Andrew’s Primary School in Soham had a fruitful morning when they went to visit the town’s Budgens store. The children met Adrian Barlow, chief executive of the English Apples and Pears association. Wisbech grower, David Wheeler, brought a tractor load of apples direct from this orchard for the event.


• British Food Fortnight offered the perfect opportunity for Yarm Primary School to expand on the success of the after-school cookery club that they ran earlier in the year and get local catering businesses involved too: every class got a session with a visiting chef. Staff from Yarn’s Chadwick’s restaurant turned up with a generous spread of raw fish. The children were given a lesson in the wide range of fish that is available from British shores and were also taught some important lessons about the depletion of some of the UK’s most popular fish. Other companies to visit the school included Betty’s of Northallerton. Staff there dedicated hours of their time baking 80 gingerbread men to take to the school. Pupils from Year One were given a lesson in health and hygiene before they donned their hairnets and set about decorating the tasty biscuits. Pauline Wright, the school’s learning assistant, said that all the events for British Food Fortnight proved to be a success.