As a Guide leader I am always looking for interesting activities for the girls to take part in and if it’s free and someone else organises it for me it that’s a huge bonus! The Tesco Farm to Fork trail has been mentioned quite a bit on various guiding Facebook pages and has been met with enthusiasm and some debate over the scouts having their own badge unlike the Guides. As we have one very local to us at Kingston Park I made enquiries for the Rainbows and Brownies to pay a visit on our usual meeting night, which is a Wednesday.
Making plans
I initially filled in the online form on www.tesco.com but after 4 weeks and no reply I managed to contacted their community champion on their Facebook page who put me in touch with a lad called Dean who runs the sessions. Not sure what happened with their online system but hey ho we were in touch with the right person. I arranged for the Rainbows to take the first tour and Brownies to follow afterwards. The sessions finish at 7pm so we had to move the times a bit earlier than our usual meeting times.
A week before the session I called Dean to check everything was still booked in and to discuss one of our Rainbows who has a severe allergy to raw egg. Dean said this would be fine however we would have to skip the bakery tour but it would be fine as we only had an hour to fill in. The Rainbow with the allergy’s Dad agreed to come along with her medication just in case but he was more than happy for her to come along! Phew-great customer care Tesco.
Fruit and veg miles
We met at the customer care desk and once the register was done we headed up to a classroom where the girls were asked to get into 4 teams and given a high vis jacket and clipboard per team. We then went to the fruit and veg aisles where the girls had to look for the country of origin of fruit and veg and pop them on the sheet. The more exotic the better. In something out of supermarket sweep, we found food from Senegal, USA, Italy and Zimbabwe amongst others. The task definitely made the girls look at food labels and see just how far it has travelled.
Bush tucker trials at fish counter
After the excitement of the veg manhandling we ventured over to the fresh fish counter where the lady behind the counter demonstrated how to gut a fish and take its insides out. The girls absolutely loved this and wanted to get involved. The made do with handling a prawn head and mussels. They were wearing gloves just in case anyone is put off going to this counter in future! Another task on the sheet was to tick off the fish we saw and label it up.
Freezing in the freezer
Our back stage tour then went in a very chilly direction towards the huge walk in freezer. Dean warned us that the temperature inside was -18 degrees so we couldn’t hang around long. Having braced ourselves we headed in and filled in the sheet to list some items we saw. Pizza and ice cream are their best sellers in the freezer aisles and who doesn’t love either of these?
Tour complete
The shop floor felt like a sauna out of the freezer and it was time to head back to the classroom to conclude our tour. Dean pottered off to get some cookies for the girls which they were delighted with. Parents were in the designated spot and some Brownies were waiting for their go. Thanks to Tesco and Dean for a great meeting!
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