Over 1,000 school children from across Pembrokeshire, aged from three to 16, attended the first ever ‘Food Story / Stori Bwyd’ event, held by the Pembrokeshire Agricultural Society on the County Showground.

During the event almost 30 arable, dairy, beef, pig and sheep farmers, from all over the county, volunteered their time to talk to the children and demonstrate local food production. They explained to the groups the journey of the different crops, vegetables, milk, eggs and meat produced in Pembrokeshire.

The event took place on 11 & 12 October 2022 on the Pembrokeshire County Showground when there was farm machinery and live animals for the local school children to see first-hand what is used to produce their food.

Mansel Raymond, President of Pembrokeshire Agricultural Society was one of the volunteers at the event. He said, “Both Rosalind and I would like to say a massive thank you to each and every one of the volunteers who took two days out from their busy work on the farm to come and talk to the children and demonstrate how they produce food and drink. The smiles on the faces of the children said it all, they listened intently, took part in the demonstrations and the teachers took resources back with them to their schools to continue the learning. One of the important elements of Pembrokeshire Agricultural Society’s work is educational and spreading the word around the county about how local food is produced by farmers.”

As well as food production the event was an opportunity to teach the children about the seasonality of what we produce locally and how the weather and climate affects the work farmers do and how the crops grow. 

Nineteen Schools attended the event. They included various year groups from: Lamphey Primary; Ysgol Casblaidd; Monkton Priory School; Ysgol Bro Preseli; St Mark's V A School; Ysgol Caer Elen; Prendergast; Holy Name School; Ysgol Bro Gwaun; Glannau Gwaun; Ysgol Waldo Williams; Hook CP School; Ysgol Beca; Ysgol Penrhyn Dewi; St Aidan's CIW School; Casmael; Ysgol Ger y Llan; Pembrokeshire college; Portfield School   

The event organiser, Kath Wilson, said, “We have had a tremendous amount of positive feedback from both the volunteers and the schools since holding the event. We have already started planning The Food Story event for 2023! Thank you to everyone who was involved and the schools who supported it.”

Thank you to NFU Cymru and the FUW for providing educational resources for the schools and pupils to take back with them and thanks to the NFU Mutual offices in Crymych, Fishguard and Narberth for their financial support.