School children from across Pembrokeshire attended Pembrokeshire Agricultural Society’s BBQ ‘Food Story / Stori Bwyd’ event

The event, which was held on the Pembrokeshire County Showground, welcomed over 1,000 children aged from five to 16 as part of the Welsh Farming Week celebrations.

During the event, arable, dairy, beef, pig, sheep, poultry and turkey farmers from all over the county gave their time to talk to the children and demonstrate local food production. They explained to the children where their food comes from, how they farm sustainably and how to care for the countryside.

Learning about sheep farming at the Food Story event
Learning about sheep farming (Pembrokeshire Agricultural Society)

Farm machinery and live animals provided the local school children an opportunity to see first-hand what is used to produce their food. The children also got the opportunity to cook and eat their own kebabs with the assistance of chefs from Hybu Cig Cymru/Meat Promotion Wales and Castell Howell.

Elwen Roberts, Hybu Cig Cymru doing cookery demos
Elwen Roberts, Hybu Cig Cymru doing cookery demos (Pembrokeshire Agricultural Society)

Kathy Wilson, a former teacher and now an Honorary Pembrokeshire Show Governor, organised the event on behalf of the Society’s Food Story / Stori Bwyd.

She said, “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, children learnt about the seasonality of what farmers produce locally and how the weather and climate affects the work farmers do as well as the different food groups and healthy eating. 

Pupils from 32 schools and colleges took up the opportunity to attend the event. These ranged from progression step 1 up to BTEC in Agriculture students.

Pembrokeshire Agricultural Society thanks Castell Howell, Hybu Cig Cymru/Meat Promotion Wales, CLA Wales and the NFU Mutual in Pembrokeshire for their financial support. The society also thanks NFU Cymru, the FUW, Wynnstay, CCF and Lantra for providing educational resources for the schools and pupils.