A GRANT from Wootton Courtenay Gardening Club has been speedily put to good use by Exmoor’s Good Vibe Veg (GVV) to help educate schoolchildren about food.

The gardening club, which organises the village’s annual flower show, gave £300 to help GVV host school visits to its community garden in Horner. 

Good Vibe Veg’s Leighanne Beart and Adam Reed received their first visit of the season from St Dubricius School, Porlock, and have another 11 school visits booked through to next July.

They are spread across all age classes from nursery and reception to year four, and each visit will be for one or two hours with activities to engage the children.

The year two explorer class from St Dubricius helped Leighanne and Adam harvest some of their main crop potatoes, the ‘Cara’ variety.

There were 18 children who ‘got stuck in straight away’ and were given a quick tour of some of the growing beds to see what vegetables they could spot - pumpkins being the most exciting - before the pair explained how they started their ‘No Dig’ beds, and how the children were going to help.

The next visit is in November with the discovery class from St Dubricius, which is reception and year one.

The current plan is to make scarecrows with the youngsters within the shelter of the site’s shed.

Leighanne said: “Going forward we would like to get them all to help us make a bed of their own to care for, sow seeds, plant out seedlings, and eventually harvest, and maybe take some food away to make a meal with.

“We are incredibly grateful for the gardening club’s contribution.

“This will help us to buy children-sized gloves, small tools, small wheelbarrows, and other provisions to enhance their visits, such as seeds, compost, and wildlife charts to display in our shed.

“In future we hope to buy some picnic benches for students, visitors, and volunteers to gather around for activities and snacks.”

More information about Good Vibe Veg can be found here.