Pupils at a Boston primary school got a close-up look at how fresh food is made when they visited Freshtime’s factory in Boston yesterday (Thursday).

Sixty year 2 pupils from Boston West Academy paid a visit to Freshtime, the leading snack salad and vegetable specialist, as part of a series of activities organised by the Freshtime Fun Club.

They used a pasta machine to help make spaghetti, explored the cab of a goods lorry and watched a video showing how fresh vegetables are turned into salads and snacks.

Later in the day year 5 and 6 pupils pitched their business ideas to a Dragons’ Den style panel of experts including Freshtime’s Managing Director Mark Newton, Shooting Star PR Director Jez Ashberry and the school’s Outdoor Learning Leader Emma Schofield.

The winning team – LBBSM – won a cookbook for their class with their integrated marketing campaign featuring billboards, branded lorries, a comic for children and a musical TV ad.

“It was terrific to see the younger children so excited about their visit to the factory,” said Mark Newton. “They particularly liked getting into the cab of the lorry and sounding the horn, and they also learned a lot about chopping and slicing from our development chef John Kermode.

“I was personally extremely impressed by the hard work and ingenuity that had gone into the older pupil’s business pitches in the afternoon. They had some brilliant ideas and clearly put a tremendous amount of work into their projects.

“The only hard part was choosing between the pitches to pick a winner.”

Emma Schofield, Outdoor Learning Leader at Boston West Academy, commented: “Our mutually beneficial partnership with Freshtime this term has resulted in thoroughly enjoyable activities for the children that have supported our passion for learning beyond the classroom. We’re looking forward to working with them on future projects.”

The Freshtime Fun Club is a new project launched last month to encourage healthy eating and teach Lincolnshire children about the food that’s grown on their doorstep.

Around 240 pupils at the school have been enrolled in the club as part of a whole term of vegetable-related activities.

Freshtime is providing the children with regular snack packs of fresh vegetables throughout this term and members of the Freshtime Fun Club have received balloons, bookmarks, badges and a monthly activity sheet.

The firm is also donating equipment for the school’s allotment and polytunnel and pupils are currently taking part in a competition to come up with the funniest veg-related joke.

Freshtime employs around 350 people in Boston and supplies chilled, value added, ready-to-eat salads, snacks, prepared vegetables and deli fillers to leading multiple retailers and food service operators.

Notes to editors:

• Freshtime based in Boston, Lincolnshire was created in 1993 by farmer co-operative ELGRO (East Lincolnshire Growers). In 2000 there was a management-led buy-out.
• In recent years more than £14 million has been invested in Freshtime’s purpose-built 82,500 square feet site in Boston to develop the firm’s production capabilities.
• Freshtime produces over 170 different product lines, from stir fry vegetables to couscous and pasta salads, deli fillers, soups and dips.
• Freshtime was included in The Grocer’s Fast 50 list of growing food businesses in November 2012 and 2013.
• The Freshtime Fun Club was launched in May 2014 to provide new learning opportunities for Boston area school pupils and to teach them about food production, vegetables and salads.
• The pilot scheme is being run at Boston West Academy and Freshtime hopes to extend the scheme across more Boston area schools in 2014/15.
• For more information visit www.freshtime.co.uk

For media information contact:
Jez Ashberry
Shooting Star PR
01522 528540
07780 735071
jez@weareshootingstar.co.uk
@jezashberry
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