Booths has launched a Grow Your Own competition for local schools that will give pupils the chance to sell their home grown produce in one of its stores.
For the first time, the winner of the regional retailer’s annual school gardening contest will become an official supplier to its local Booths store for the day.
Schoolchildren will be able to sell their winning harvest of summer produce to customers to raise money for their school.
The victorious school will also collect a £1,000 cheque to spend on gardening or cooking equipment for use in lessons. Three runners up will each receive £150.
Every primary school in Booths’ four home counties of Lancashire, Cumbria, Yorkshire and Cheshire can take part in the competition which is designed to encourage pupils to grow their own five a day.
Now in its third year, the Grow Your Own competition has proved a blooming success with hundreds of schools across the region digging in to take part.
Booths’ Matthew Bruno says:
“It’s a fantastic way for children to take their learning out of the classroom and into the great outdoors.”
“As an added reward this year, the lucky winners will become our first school age suppliers and be able to sell the fruits and vegetables they grow in a real store. Who knows maybe it will inspire them to become one of our future award-winning suppliers.”
The Grow Your Own competition aims to help children understand where different fruit and vegetables come from and to encourage them to eat healthily.
Each school can take their pick of the crops to grow whatever produce they choose. This can include strawberries, tomatoes, radishes, rhubarb or lettuces.
Judges will be looking for the school that harvests the finest fruit and vegetables, uses recycling imaginatively and presents their results to the judges in the best way.
Matthew Bruno adds: “If you can encourage children to grow their own fruit and vegetables you’d be amazed by how much more enthusiastic they are about eating them. They simply love getting their hands dirty and sowing and growing their very own food. It’s a lesson that will stay with them for life.”
One finalist will be selected from each of the four counties. They will be invited to bring some of their best produce to an awards ceremony at Booths head office in Preston on Monday 12 July.
More than 60 schools registered to take party in last year’s Grow Your Own competition and the winner was Lancaster Lane Community Primary School in Leyland, Lancashire.
Pupils at the school impressed judges by coming up with innovative ideas that stretched from the garden into the classroom. The children used their produce in science and cookery classes. As well as bringing in some examples of their produce for the presentation, they also made a delicious broad bean dip from beans they had picked that morning.
They also worked hard to recycle products by sowing seeds in cardboard tubes and paper pots and composting garden waste.
To enter your school into the competition and register please email growyourown@booths.co.uk by April 30th 2010, or log onto
Schools will then need to submit their entries by Monday 28th June in the form of a short creative photo or video diary showing the children planting their gardens and growing the fruit and vegetables.
For more information about Booths and its products go to www.booths.co.uk