The Big Green Bus at Colwall Green Primary School

I was recently lucky enough to get involved with The Big Green Idea's outings to Colwall. Brigit asked me to do a workshop on food for the children at Colwall Green Primary School, as she knows this is a passion of mine. I was so excited as not only had I never visited the bus, but also it gave me the opportunity to pass on my knowledge to the next generation so that, hopefully, they can help make a difference to how we approach our food.

The day before the workshop, Brigit took me to see the bus and I was speechless. For those of you who don't know me, this doesn't happen often! The bus is amazing; I got quite emotional seeing it in real life!! Everything is perfect, it's light and airy and inviting and makes you want to find out more about all of the gorgeous things on board.

The next day we set off early to get to the school in time as Brigit needed to be there to do an assembly on bees. During the assembly we got the bus ready and I prepared for my workshop upstairs. I was really excited as I am used to teaching older children, so today was a new experience. I decided to focus on organic, fairtrade and RSPCA Freedom Foods as these are available in most shops and have distinctive logos that the children can recognise.

When the children arrived on the bus they were wide-eyed in amazement and full of enthusiasm. I started the workshops by asking the children what they already knew and it was a lovely surprise to find out that the majority could answer most of my questions. We discussed each area of organic, fairtrade and RSPCA Freedom Food, we considered the good and bad points for each, and then we made a good and bad list of things to look for when buying food.

After the children had all the facts I split them into groups and asked each group to decide on a good and bad meal based on everything they had learned. I gave them a list of foods to choose from, with some tricky ones thrown in. The level of the conversations astounded me: one of the groups discussed frozen chips and how they are good; as soon as I heard this alarm bells started going off in my head - frozen chips good? But they brought me round to a new way of thinking, explaining that they thought they were good because there's no waste as they can be kept for a long time and you only cook what is needed. Another conversation was the discussion about fairtrade bananas that have been flown into the country. The children decided they were bad because of the way they had been transported but I pointed out that as we can't get them in this country, local isn't an option and being fairtrade helps the growers. So the children came to the conclusion that this would have to be a personal choice as it has rights and wrongs.

Throughout the day we did eight workshops with eight different groups of children ranging in age, and the children went away with more understanding about organic, fairtrade and RSPCA Freedom Foods which they could pass onto their parents, the buyers.

The day was a mixture of emotions and was mentally and physically tiring, but in a positive way and I was buzzing. I couldn't have asked for a nicer day and even had the opportunity to listen to Brigit's bee talk which now has me hooked on bees and trying to help them. I've even bought a bee identification chart from my local RSPB shop so all I need now is a yellow and black stripy cardigan to complete my bee spotter's kit!

Every time I get involved with The Big Green Idea I go away having learnt more and full of enthusiasm to spread the word. This time I also learnt how to push a double-decker bus up a country lane but that's a whole different story!

Salena

photos (c) Salena Walker 2009

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