Fit and Fed in Plymouth

Fit and Fed is a holiday club programme run in Plymouth during the school holidays for school children from Reception through to Year 11. As part of the Government’s Holiday Activities and Food Programme, they offer fun family activities and a range of healthy meals. They offer free places on their holiday programme to children currently receiving benefit-related free school meals, Looked After Children, Children with Education, Health and Care Plans, Foster Children, Young Carers, children of recognised refugees and children from asylum seeking families.

Plymouth is one of 30 places across the UK taking part in the nationwide Veg Cities campaign, led by Food Plymouth as the city’s local food partnership. Veg Cities is a Sustainable Food Places campaign and is led by food and farming charity Sustain in partnership with the wider Peas Please initiative. The campaign aims to grow, cook, sell, serve and save more vegetables, increasing both availability and consumption all over the country. So, Food Plymouth’s Veg Cities campaign decided to team up with Fit and Fed over the summer.

A fantastic team led 29 workshops throughout August, introducing children from across Plymouth to growing their own vegetables, aided by compost, egg boxes and dried peas.

Sophie Paterson, Sustainable Food Places Coordinator at Food Plymouth, said: "The sessions offered a chance to experience vegetables in a new light by getting hands on with planting on a micro-scale, using materials you might be able to find at home."

A sneak preview of what the young peashoots would look like came in the form of 'here's one we grew earlier', with a recipe card on hand to suggest how to eat the peashoots once ready to harvest. There was also chance to get creative with some colourful egg box designs, plus take part in a quiz sharing some incredible facts about the humble pea. "Peas, please!" it most definitely was.

Find out more about the Veg Cities campaign here.