Farmers have helped educate city kids on where their food comes from by raising money to build a new vegetable farm.
Farmers from Pembrokeshire have raised £502.67 via a raffle and donations to help City Children, at Lower Treginnis, St David’s.
The money raised will go towards re-developments, which will include a new vegetable farm with polytunnels and seed beds.
Farmers' Union of Wales (FUW) Pembrokeshire CEO Rebecca Voyle said many children may not know where their food comes from.
“For the children who come here for a week with their schools it is an intense, ‘learning through doing’ experience of a different life,” Ms Voyle explained.
“Many children have limited opportunities to explore the outside world, so a new vegetable garden to help them understand how their food is produced is definitely worth supporting.”
School Farm Manager Dan Jones thanked the FUW for the donations, and said the kids do "real farm work".
“Treginnis is not a petting zoo, and we ask the kids to do real farm work. They are up at the crack of dawn milking goats, feeding pigs and poultry or looking after newborn lambs,” Mr Jones said.
“The children are completely unplugged from the virtual world and now they can also get stuck in helping to build the new vegetable garden.”
Farms for City Children
Children’s author Michael Morpurgo and his wife Clare founded Farms for City Children (FFCC) at Nethercott House in Devon in 1976.
It aims to offer urban children from all over the country a unique opportunity to live and work together for a week at a time on a real farm in the heart of the countryside.
In 1986, FFCC acquired Lower Treginnis in Pembrokeshire on a long lease from the National Trust. After a highly successful fundraising campaign, the buildings were converted and re-structured by FFCC and in May 1989 Lower Treginnis opened for its first schools.
The project won many awards for its sensitive restoration of the original farm buildings to provide a purpose-built, child-oriented space.
The award-winning buildings were converted and re-structured by FFCC to provide for up to 39 children and their teachers.
The children help look after poultry, horses, donkeys, milking goats and a breeding herd of pigs. The farm now welcomes over 1000 pupils every year and is booked up for 34 weeks a year.
