Potato Project Success!

ISJ Horticulture, a leading packer and supply chain manager to the horticultural sector has been helping local schools around Perth and Kinross to dig deep in a bid to educate them about the origins of the food they eat.

This week has been harvest week before schools break up for summer holidays and there has been fantastic entries not only for the best weight of potatoes but also cross curricular activities including stories about ‘a day in the life of a potato’.

The Potato Project, organised by the Perth & Kinross Initiative of the Royal Highland Educational Trust (RHET) and sponsored by ISJ Horticulture, encourages classes to grow and harvest their own potatoes. This year over 130 classes (2800 pupils) from across Perth & Kinross took part in the project, which shows the children the gradually unfolding story of the spud and how food and farming are linked.

Top of the crops in the 2024 competition and winning the cup was the P2/3 class from Letham Primary School who won the ‘Heaviest Crop of Potatoes’.

John Marshall, RHETs very own Professor Potato, said

“The Potato Project has been going for years now in Perth and Kinross and it is fun and educational covering a range of learning outcomes which are very much hands-on and pupils enjoy learning how to grow potatoes and how they fit into a healthy balanced diet”

Mr Marshall delivered over 80 in school interactive potato information sessions to the classes who took up the offer. He discussed his life working with potatoes and drew on his knowledge to excite pupils about growing their own food.

RHET Perth and Kinross will be running this free project again in the next academic year and would encourage all teachers to join in with it as it fits in with so many areas within the ‘Curriculum for Excellence.’