GARDEN allotments are being built at secondary schools in a bid to teach teenagers where their food really comes from.

New Rickstones and Maltings academies, in Witham, hope students will eventually be able to help themselves to healthy snacks during the school day.

Beds have been set up at New Rickstones in preparation for February when it will be turned into a fruit and vegetable garden.

A bee hotel is being created in the grounds, with plans to also grow a fruit orchard with the donation of 100 trees in the coming months.

Head of Year Ten Jonathan Sim said: “We felt it would be a good idea to make the connection and take students through the process of going from seed to fruit and vegetables.”

He added: “The long-term hope is that we will be able to invite the community in to walk through our orchard and enjoy the produce – and for it to become a community garden.

“Students in science, art, English and maths will all make use of the garden for their studies and it can be used as a therapeutic space.

“The idea is that it will become bigger than just somewhere that fruit and veg are grown.

“I want it to become a part of what we are about.”

An ethos of reusing and recycling means nothing will be purchased for the garden, with old lockers becoming herb gardens. At Maltings, supermarket giant Tesco donated ten bags of soil, seeds and plant food while builders EH Smith provided the gravel.

School restaurant chef Paul Skilton has set up the plot outside the back of his kitchen and has been appealing for donations from companies.

He said: “We sent letters out to ask if anyone would be able to make a donation to help the children with their allotment.

“We didn’t really know what to expect, but these donations and the items we have been recycling have helped us to get started.

“We already have things like garlic, potatoes and strawberries growing out there.”

There are also plans to set up a wormery using the scraps of food left over in the school restaurant to produce fertiliser.