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Pupils sell school-grown fruit and veg at market

Alex MossYorkshire
News imageAlex Moss/BBC Three schoolgirls, each holding a bunch of small carrots, stand in front of a table on which an open box of carrots sits. Alex Moss/BBC
The children admitted their carrots had not grown quite as big as they had hoped

Children from Leeds have swapped their classroom for market stalls to sell fruit and vegetables they have grown in school.

The youngsters have spent months growing produce from seed with help from expert gardeners as part of a food education programme.

Their hard work has paid off with a colourful crop of fruit and vegetables, including tomatoes, gooseberries, radishes and runner beans, which they have sold at the city's Kirkgate Market.

Eight-year-old Dilet, from Armley Park primary school, admitted the carrots had not quite reached supermarket size, but added: "I've really enjoyed growing them, they are so cute."

Her classmate Treasure, also aged eight, said they had sampled some of their harvest.

"We tried the radishes because there were some early growers and they tasted not so bad."

She added they had learned the golden rule of gardening: "One thing I've learnt is that you need to water them just the right amount of time.

"If you water them too much they'll drown, if you water them too little, they'll dehydrate."

News imageAlex Moss/BBC A group of six schoolchildren -three boys and three girls - standing with their female teacher behind a stall displaying boxes of fruit and vegetables. Alex Moss/BBC
Teacher Amy Smith said the children had learned lots of different skills

Fellow pupil Lily said her favourite things to eat out of everything they had grown were tomatoes.

The project is part of Young Marketeers, a scheme run by charity School Food Matters to teach children about food, gardening and enterprise.

Money raised from their sales will be donated to Incredible Edible Leeds, an organisation which supports more than 20 areas of Leeds to run food-growing projects.

Amy Smith, Year 3 class teacher at the school, said the children had embraced both gardening and the challenge of becoming young entrepreneurs.

"We've thought about how to price things up, how to advertise things and how to talk to the public using manners and friendly faces," she said.

"They've been really enthusiastic and it's taught them lots of life lessons."

Stephanie Slater, founder and chief executive of School Food Matters, said: "Food education is a vital life skill and hands-on experience such as growing and selling fresh produce can help children build a real connection with food and where it comes from."

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