Pupils at schools across the district are learning how to grow their own vegetables and eat healthily thanks to a housing association scheme.

Greenfields Community Housing are helping children at Silver End Academy, John Bunyan Primary School, Stisted Primary School, Acorn Children's Centre and Richard De Clare Primary School, create patches of land to grow pizza ingredients as part of its Fit and Fed Scheme

James Taylor, Greenfields' health and wellbeing co-ordinator, said: "Our Fit and Fed Scheme is about helping people in our communities to be happy and healthy by eating well and staying active.

"We know that some people are on tight budgets or don’t have necessarily know how to cook healthily at home, so our pizza gardens can help to increase that knowledge.

"The students are really enjoying getting stuck in and we can’t wait to see the finished results.”

On top of participating in the Fit and Fed Scheme, Silver End Academy is also working to transform some of its outside space into a memorial garden.

Christine Hardy, learning support assistant at the school, said: "We’ve never done anything on this scale before and it’s absolutely brilliant.

"The kids are very excited. A couple of students at the academy have lost parents in the last year, and we will be honouring them through this project, too.”

The scheme also includes a cricket project for five to eight-year-olds and a series of workshops for adults on how to cook good food on a budget - both will run over the summer holidays.

Contact james.taylor@greenfieldsch.org.uk.