The Duchess of Cornwall is to join Birmingham’s school children at the National Harvest Service.
Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall will be attending the National Harvest Service at Birmingham Cathedral on 20th October 2014.
Held as part of Love British Food‘s campaign and sponsored by Tesco, the event will incorporate around 360 children from 20 schools presenting harvest boxes, crammed with home-grown and home-cooked goodies, to Her Royal Highness.
The boxes will not only be filled with food that has been collected but also with produce that has been grown by the children in food and farming activities in their wider school communities.
A service to celebrate the Harvest, and British Food Fortnight, was held at Westminster Abbey in 2013 with HRH The Duchess of Cornwall in attendance. The service was led by The Dean of Westminster, The Very Reverend Dr John Hall.
‘We grow our own organic fruit and vegetable in our school allotment and learn how to tend the soil, make compost and grow from seed,’ Camelia Paton Devine, a teacher from The Oval Primary School in Birmingham, says. ‘Over all our vision of ‘from seed to plate,’ becomes a reality in our state of the art food technology room, where we use our allotment produce to cook delicious and healthy recipes.
‘Our local community gets involved too. We promote buying British, growing locally and having fun cooking!’
Acclaimed restaurant Opus in Birmingham has been working closely with West House School on this topic. ‘I cannot emphasise enough how vital it is that the next generation grows up understanding that we must encourage our own farming and fishing heritage, and must care for our environment in the process.’ Says Managing Director at Opus, Ann Tonks.
HRH The Duchess of Cornwall will be joined by a host of well known faces and supporters of food and farming, including Harry Potter actor Oliver Phelps, Blue Peter gardener Chris Collins and, creator of children’s character Henri le Worm, Olivier Blanc.
The Bishop of Birmingham will give a special address and Lauren Williams, Young Poet Laureate for Birmingham 2013-14, will perform her harvest poem.
Guests of the service will be greeted by farm animals from Hatton Adventure World and there will be a harvest display created by Tesco.
The harvest boxes will be taken to the Birmingham Central Food Bank for distribution.
For further information on Love British Food, visit their website here.
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