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Schools Plant Apple Trees For Future Fruit Feast

14th November, 2009

Food for Life Partnership schools in England will soon be enjoying homegrown apples thanks to an initiative to get schools planting their own fruit trees.

During Plant a Tree Week, from Wednesday 25 November to Sunday 6 December, the Food for Life Partnership is encouraging its schools to plant apple trees in a bid to build a network of burgeoning school orchards, which will enable pupils and communities to grow and eat their own produce.

During the week, the Partnership is also encouraging Mark schools to join in and help break a world record with the BBC's Breathing Places record attempt 'Tree O'clock' between11am and 12 noon on Saturday 5 December, where the campaign hopes to see the most trees planted across the UK in one hour.

Plant a Tree Week will see 400 apple trees being dug into school gardens, which have been developed with the support of the Food for Life Partnership. The trees, Bright Future and Ceeval*, which offer good disease resistance, should produce delicious fruits for pupils to enjoy by next autumn.

Food for Life Partnership manager at Garden Organic, Colette Bond said, “Much of the practical gardening activities carried out by our schools involves growing vegetables, but we don't want pupils to miss out on the joys of growing fruit, which can be equally as rewarding. What we hope to do during Plant a Tree Week is to not only provide two-hundred more fruit trees to liven up school gardens, but also begin a network of school orchards which we hope will inspire more children of the possibilities that come with the experience of gardening and growing their own food.”

The Food for Life Partnership, which brings together the expertise of the Soil Association, Garden Organic, Focus on Food and the Health Education Trust, works with 1,200 schools across England by helping them set up organic gardens, run school cooking clubs and arrange farm visits. Its end aim is to equip the next generation with the lost skills of growing and cooking food.

To find out more about the Food for Life Partnership visit www.foodforlife.org.uk.

Schools taking part must register their activity at: www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces/treeoclock/pledgeform.shtml