We regularly see news reports about childhood obesity, but the more shocking statistic to come out is the number of obese children in the UK is set to increase by 1.3 million over the next nine years.
Max Macgillveray
Unless of course, something is done about it, which is why a pair of campaigners, Max MacGillivray and Gareth Jones, are going to ride London to Cape Town, visiting suppliers of fruit and vegetables on the way.
The plan is to take video footage of their exploits and then turn this into films that they can show in schools all over the UK when they get back, highlighting where fresh produce is grown and what food is good for you.
Max has an extensive background in farming and fresh produce, while Gareth is a milkman in Wales running 24 milk floats.
Gareth Jones on a previous biking adventure
The pair are going to be riding Tiger 800 adventure bikes, kindly supplied by Triumph, and they are also being backed by Pink Lady apples, the Waitrose Foundation and Fair Trade, plus a host of other suppliers, growers and food industry organisations.
They will set off on Tuesday 8th November from New Spitalfields Market in London and will travel through Spain, Morocco, Senegal, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa, ending with a thanksgiving service in Cape Town cathedral in February.
Max said: “Fresh Produce is my lifelong passion and I’ve put my heart and soul into the industry, so I was dismayed to read that six out of 10 British children had no idea where the fruit and veg they eat comes from. Something had to be done. That’s where the idea for the Great Fruit Adventure came from.”
They’ll be riding on this – a Triumph Tiger 800
“I want to tell the story of the fantastic places where our fruit and veg is grown and to help young people understand that it doesn’t just magically appear on the supermarket shelves.”
The pair will visit key citrus growers in Spain, the largest grower of sweetcorn in Senegal, an amazing fruit grower in Ghana that supplies Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, flower growers in Ethiopia and Mozambique and key exotic vegetable and coffee growers in Kenya and Tanzania.
We look forward to seeing how they get on.
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