At yesterday’s BIMA breakfast event, primary school teacher and educational researcher, Martin Waller, sought to inspire brands to get involved with the education of children through the provision of resources and by working closely with teachers.

The event was focused on a Tesco case study, the Farm to Fork initiative, part of the Eat Happy Project. Greg Sage, community director at Tesco, and Jon Davie, MD of Zone, the digital agency who handled the online aspects of the initiative, spoke about the way the project runs, while Waller explained how his class had benefitted from the programme.

Tesco has made the promotion of healthy living a large part of its CSR initiative, a move which Sage said was largely driven by the Tesco customer. The Farm to Fork initiative provides schoolchildren with an insight into the origins of their food through a combination of field trips to its supermarkets, access to online resources and cooking classes.

The word ‘community’ came up again and again, which may suggest that Tesco’s brand aspirations are to be everybody’s ‘local’. Perhaps as an incentive to the company representatives attending the BIMA breakfast Waller said that, “Tesco is reflected very well in our school”.

The event was hosted by Jill Fear, account manager at Creative Skillset. The overriding positive message was that brands have the ability to give primary schools access to resources and technology that would otherwise be beyond their reach. Digital provides opportunities for students that would never have been possible in the past. Waller told how his students benefit from blogging and social media, as well as Tesco’s live, interactive lessons.