Great Fruit Adventure Plans to Educate Kids About Origins of Produce
04 Aug 2016 --- Fruit industry veteran Max MacGillivray is on a mission to transform the eating habits of kids. He is planning the Great Fruit Adventure Project which will see him motorbike from England to Cape Town in November and visit farms along the way.
He will start out from the south of England, travel to Spain, Morocco, Senegal, Ghana, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Johannesburg and end up in Cape Town. The idea is to stop off at fruit and vegetable producers in these areas to find out more about the fresh produce they grow and how it gets onto the shelves of British retailers.
The Great Fruit Adventure was the brainchild of MacGillivray who was shocked by childhood obesity the figures. He came up with the idea of the trip to help educate children, tackle the nation’s ignorance and teach them about the origins of fruit and the journey it makes.
“Fresh produce is my lifelong passion and I’ve put my heart and soul into the industry so I was dismayed to read that six out of 10 British children had no idea where the fruit and veg they eat comes from. Something had to be done.”
“That’s where the idea of the Great Fruit Adventure came from. I want to tell the story of the fantastic places where our fruit and veg is grown and the people who grow it, to help young people understand that it doesn’t just magically appear on the supermarket shelves.”
The visits will include citrus growers in Spain, the largest sweet corn grower in Senegal, a fruit grower in Ghana that supplies Waitrose and Sainsbury’s and many more.
Alongside the Great Fruit Adventure is an online petition calling on minister to do more to help kids eat fresh produce and educate them about sugary drinks. It is listed on change.org and will be delivered to UK food and farming minister George Eustice.
“With ongoing childhood obesity and health issues globally, combined with more food businesses looking to sell high margin sugary drinks and snack products to an even younger audience, we need to create a change for all of us,” it says.
“We want to encourage as many schools, families, individuals and businesses, not just in the UK, but internationally to look to buy, to eat and to enjoy more and more fresh produce and reject unhealthy and obesity creating sugary drinks and unhealthy food.”
The petition also points out that an estimated 5.2 million deaths worldwide were attributed to inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption in 2013 and highlights the escalating costs of obesity to the NHS as well as the underperformance of the UK’s 5 a Day campaign.
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