Year of Food and Farming – Q&A Brief

What is the Year of Food and Farming?

It is a fantastic opportunity for children and young people to learn more about:

how food is grown, reared or produced and how it gets to the customer

how to prepare or cook food

what good nutrition means and how that can contribute to a healthier lifestyle

what happens on a farm & what life is like in the countryside

what the countryside can offerin terms of leisure, sports and employment.

When is it?

The year will run throughout the academic year from September 2007 to July 2008.

What is it all about?

It is about providing learning opportunities, through stronger links betweenthe education sector and the food and farming sectors. Farmers, food growers/producers, processors, distributors, retailers and caterers all have a key part to play in getting food onto the table, both in the school dining room and in the home. The Year will help create strong and enduring partnerships between schools and food/farming organisations, in the same way that schools already have successful links with other businesses.

Who is it for?

Everyone in a primary, special or secondary school: pupils, teachers and other staff

Parents, carers and the wider family

Everyone working in the food, farming and wider countryside sectors.

Why is the year needed?

Becausemany children, and adults, have little or no understanding of how their food is produced. Many children no longer have the opportunity to learn to cook.

Because, despite recent concerns about the quality of school meals, and initiatives such as labelling food to showthe fat,salt etc. content, many people remain confused about what a balanced diet is, and how it can contribute to good health.

Because many children and young people have rarely visited the countryside and know little about what it offers them in employment, leisure and sporting activities.

Whose year is it?

This is a year for the whole food and farming industry. The success of the year will be dependent on the contributions of many people drawn from right across England.

The early work to develop the year was led by Farming and Countryside Education (FACE) with the support of three Government Departments – DfES, Defra and the Department of Health, plus other partners,including Business in the Community. The Royal Agricultural Society for England (RASE) is hosting the secretariat for the Year.Many other organisations are now driving forward the work to prepare for the start of the year,in September 2007.

What will be available during the year?

Events and learning activities will be offered manly at the local and regional level. The benefits of learning outside the classroom were highlighted in the DfES Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto, launched on 28 November 2006.

Already, hundreds of farms and large estates offer opportunities for school visits. Last year at least 690,000 learners took part. We want to see more of this, and a broader range of opportunities offered by other rural businesses – e.g. food producers, processors and retailers, or support industries which provide seeds, machinery, equipment etc to the farming industry.

New or updated learning materials will also be produced for use in schools, to help support recent and forthcoming changes to the curriculum, particularly at 11-16.

A small number of large national events will also be held, mainly in 2008.

What will it cost to take part?

We want to make these opportunities available to the widest possible number of children and young people. Wherever possible, we hope that events during the year will be free, or offered at minimal cost, to school groups and families. We are planning a few national events, for which we hope to gain sponsorship so that it will not be necessary to charge an admission fee.

Is there any funding available to help?

We recognise that there may be other costs, e.g. for transport to an event or for a countryside visit, and are seeking further sponsorship, either national or local, to cover some of these costs. We hope, for example, that local businesses might support the year by providing funding to their local school(s) to cover the costs of transport for a class or year group outing.

I’m interested - where can I find out more?

To register your interest or find out more about the plans for the year, and how you can play a part, please contact FACE.

You can email us at:

Or write to us at: FACE, StoneleighPark, Warwickshire, CV8 2LZ

Or phone us on:02476 853089 or 0208 203 5510.