Farm My Food

Hampshire fare, in partnership with LEAF (Linking Education and farming) asked us, Wheatsheaf Farming, based at Folly Farm to host a special student day on the farm called FarmMyFood. This took place at the end of June.

150 students from Hampshire schools attended including John Hanson, The Costello School, Langtree School near Reading and Testbourne School in Whitchurch.

Key to the event was the opportunity for pupils to engage with business owners and experts, among them local food producers, a nutritionist, a top chef, land agents, bankers, estate managers, farm managers and environment and wildlife conservationists, with the aim of learning about the rural environment that surrounds us, how our food is produced, where our food comes from and the importance of agriculture.

We turned the grain barn into a Food Hall, and welcomed Chalk Stream Trout, Hill Farm Juice, Laverstoke Park Farm, Owtons the butchers, Lyburn Cheese and Fullers who sent a top chef, the pupils took the time to quiz them on their businesses and enjoyed samples of delicious Hampshire produce.

Local businesses who formed our Finance Hub included Simmons and Sons, Savills, Martin and Co Accountants, Barclays Bank and The Little Robot Company. Students were encouraged to learn the key tenets of the business environment for the food, farming and hospitality industry such as short and long term planning, cash flow, logistical challenges of production, marketing, people management, recruitment and retention and seasonal challenges.

The day included a tour of our own working farm, by David our farm manager, on tractor and trailer with its focus on regenerative farming supported by Alison from the Wessex Farm Wildlife and Deborah from Innovation for Agriculture on board who talked about the challenges farmers face when tasked with producing food, looking after the environment, encouraging diversity in both plant, insect and bird life, dealing with climate change, sustainability and how farming may look in the future.

Whilst judging the group challenge the students listened to a talk led by University Centre Sparsholt about the wide ranging careers available to them in food and farming, the food and drink industry being the biggest manufacturing sector in this country, employing over 4 million people.

It was a full and interesting day, we thank everyone who supported financially or gave up their time to attend and contribute in any way at all, and these sorts of special days don’t happen without the generosity and kindness of many people, so thank you.

We cannot expect young people to understand the relationship between the food, hospitality and farming industries unless we get them out of the classroom and show them and what a fabulous day we had!