How to save £40M/year of tax payers money

Did you know that £40m per year is spent on every state school child between 4 and 6 having a free piece of fruit, or veg, every day? NHS link here

Unfortunately 50% of the produce is bad quality & wasted, only 30-40% is British (13% pears, 5% apples) and some produce has been tested and proved to have more pesticide residues than that available on supermarket shelves.

To me this is an absolute disgrace! A complete waste of money and HUGE missed opportunity.

If the objective is to get kids eating fruit and veg and encourage British farmers to supply the produce, there are far better and cheaper solutions.

BigBarn is all about cutting out the middle man and encouraging direct trade. We have worked with schools and seen the best way to get kids to eat fruit and veg is to get them to grow it.

We have proved it works (BBC video here) and why we have been promoting our petition to get food Growing Cooking & nutrition on the curriculum for the last 5 months. (5,175 signatures as at 26/4/19).

We are not alone, many other organisations have also proved that if children grow fruit and veg they want to eat it.

And when 14,000 of our 26,000 schools already gave a garden or veg patch we are theoretically half way there.

£40m would give each school £1,538. Easily enough to plant some fruit trees and bushes as well as build some raised beds for all year round veg production.

Kids can learn, and be enthused to grow, cook, and even store fruit & veg for the winter. Local farmers and the community can get involved to supply produce during shortages, or help sell any excess food not eaten by the kids, or used in the school kitchen.

Dull academic subjects can be made easier to learn by linking them to the veg patch, like photosynthesis, or; ‘how much will we have to pay the shop if they want 20% commission’?

Please read more and sign our petition here to help stop this incredible waste, and actually help reduce the 20% of NHS spend on food related disease. In effect our taxes!