Education charity The Country Trust has four decades of experience in creating opportunities for disadvantaged children to find ‘joy in finding out’ and has now worked with teachers and farmers to develop Farm in a Box, an innovative new way to create encounters with food and farming learning, despite Covid-19 restrictions.

Handcrafted by experienced Country Trust Coordinators and local farmers, the boxes are filled with exciting resources – farm produce to taste, seeds to touch and plant, activities, challenges and experiments for pupils to try as part of their Farm in a Box day. Teachers lead the activities but where technology allows, the children meet their farmer via a live link to share their excitement and ask questions.

Each box is based on a real working farm and accompanied by a short film in which the host farmer welcomes the class and takes them on a virtual tour of his or her farm.

As of December 2020, Country Trust delivered 67 separate Farm in a Box experiences to 2,161 children. The charity moved to Farm in a Box Online during Lockdown 3 but is already building an order list for Farm in a Box for the summer term having received rave reviews from teachers, pupils and farmers.

In normal times, The Country Trust runs food and farming programmes for primary schools with a high percentage of children eligible for Free School Meals, schools and groups providing for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEN/D), young carers, vulnerable and refugee children. Farm Discovery visits to real working farms are at the heart of their mission to help children learn, grow and thrive. With the restrictions of the pandemic The Country Trust team knew they had to find a new way to respond.