PUPILS from Longhill High School are calling on the people from the local community to help them in their quest to gather as many declarations of support for local fruit as possible.
As a part of the Fruit-full Schools project, Longhill High School is one of 200 schools across England which will be aiming to collectively gather over 100,000 pledges in support of local produce from their surrounding communities.
The school, having already established its own orchard as part of the Fruitfull Schools project, will be in competition to gather the most reasons why their community loves and supports local produce.
If they win, they will be awarded funds to commission a local artist to create a permanent fruit related art installation in their school grounds.
In addition, anyone that gives their reason why they love local fruit will be in with a chance of winning a stunning new fruit press from Vigo Presses worth £220.
The competition comes as a part of the Fruitfull Schools project, a scheme designed to help increase the numbers of UK orchards, whilst reviving some of the long-forgotten local fruit varieties.
The school has now participated in the project – developed by the national school grounds charity- Learning through Landscapes – for four years.
The fruitful project is helping children across the UK to establish and maintain traditional fruit orchards within their school grounds in partnership with their local communities.
Longhill High School now hopes to put Brighton and Hove’s love for local fruit on the map, by asking them to show their support by submitting a short reason why they love local food.
Ms Kirsten Abingdon, orchard project leader at Longhill High School, said: “There are so many reasons to support locally grown fruit.
“It increases business for local farmers and trades, helps preserve the heritage of local varieties, con- serves energy in food miles and therefore fresher, more nutritious fruit can be consumed.
“We are hoping our community will join the school by pledging sup- port by adding a short reason why they love locally grown produce.”
Ms Abingdon added: “We’d be delighted if Brighton and Hove was the area that had the largest community of support out of all the national Fruit-full Schools, with the highest number of pledges in England, so we are encouraging the local community to visit the school or go online to pledge support.”
In the autumn the school also plans to participate in a national initiative to see which Fruit-full school can ‘scrump’ the largest donations of surplus produce from their region, before redistributing the produce amongst local community groups.
The Fruit-full Schools project aims to rejuvenate the growth of over 150 different British fruit vari- eties whilst raising awareness of the importance of locally grown produce.
So support Longhill High School and show your appreciation of local fruit by adding your reason of why you are in favour of locally grown produce.
Pledging support costs nothing and takes less than a minute online on the Fruit-full Schools website at www.fruitfullschools.org/reasons/ index.php.
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