Seeds sown for children’s initiative

PRIMARY school children across the Northside are to be given the opportunity to learn how to grow their own food this spring.

Grow It Yourself (GIY) and innocent drinks have teamed up to launch the eight annual food growing initiative, ‘The innocent Big Grow'. The 2019 event is now open for primary schools across the country to apply for a free Big Grow pack to be delivered to their school via innocentbiggrow.com

This year the pupils will learn how to grow peas, cress and tomatoes. Each Big Grow pack includes enough soil, growing pots, seeds for a class of 30 along with an expert food growing kit devised by GIY plus details on how to cook and eat the produce that each child has grown.

Over the last seven years, innocent and GIY have enabled more than 171,000 school children in Ireland to have their first growing experience in classrooms through the supply of seeds, grow pots, compost and expert growing advice and tips.

Speaking at the launch, GIY founder Michael Kelly said: "Studies show that children who grow their own food are more likely to eat fruits and vegetables and show higher levels of knowledge about nutrition. 

“The children not only learn the science of growing, they also experience the joy of growing and eating their own food. 

“GIY calls this ‘Food Empathy', which is a deeper connection with food, and is proven to lead to a healthier life long-term.” 

Mr Kelly added: “We are delighted to launch this initiative again with innocent and we hope these life lessons continue all of the children who take part right into adulthood.”

Marketing manager at innocent drinks Ireland, Ali Gibbons, said: “We are big fans of fruit and veg at innocent and we are exceptionally proud of ‘The Big Grow’ as it is a fun way of teaching children how to grow their own. 

“Over the past eight years, we have reached nearly half of all primary schools in Ireland with this initiative with students learning about the importance of healthy food. 

“We would encourage teachers to sign up today for their free Big Grow pack so we can see even more students getting involved in 2019.”

Every school that registers for the event will receive a Big Grow certificate while the most engaged or the ‘Best' Big Grow school will win a trip to Bloom for their class, a trip to Dublin Zoo and €500 worth of gardening equipment for the school. The winning school will be presented with their prizes at Bloom 2019, and two runners-up prizes of a €300 and a €200 GIY voucher are also up for grabs.