Collect the coupons to win a share of £10,000 of gardening kit for your local scheme, with Plant to Plate scheme sponsored by PlantGrow

For our Plant to Plate scheme, sponsored by PlantGrow, we've teamed up with Enjoy Gardening More to give schools across the region a chance to share in £10,000 worth of equipment, to help get children outside, learning about plants and sources of food. You can play your part by collecting coupons and handing them into the school - and over half-term week, there's a coupon bonanza, with 12 tokens on both Saturdays and 11 every other day.

Norse Catering provides more than 25,000 dinners in schools across Norfolk and Suffolk every day and couldn't be more enthusiastic about Plant to Plate. "We already work with schools that have gardens," explains catering director Andrew Lipscomb. "We've sponsored raised beds, working with the Norse Grounds team, and we have a scheme for our supplier McCain to provide seed potatoes for schools to grow."

For Norse, the aim is to get children eating well. "If they grow it, the children want to taste it," Andrew explains. "Even if they haven't eaten it before, things they've grown are exciting so they'll want to try them."

What's good to grow for the school kitchens? "Anything we can use in small amounts - for instance, things we can put onto a salad bar with a note saying it was grown by the children, like grated carrots or tomatoes," says Andrew, adding, "It's important to grow varieties that will be ready to harvest before the summer holidays."

School dinners from Norse already have a fresh, regional feel. "We're very proud that, as a company, 80pc of our spend is within East Anglia," says Andrew. "Whether that's meat, vegetables or staff, we do everything we can to keep it local."

Norse also runs cookery clubs in a number of schools. "We teach children how to prepare their food - to wash, peel or chop it," Andrew says. "Food can be fun and there's nothing more fun for children than growing, harvesting, preparing and eating their own veg."

ABOUT PLANT TO PLATE

Plant to Plate is a token-collect scheme, with £10,000 worth of gardening equipment waiting to be shared between schools across the region. Every school that collects more than 1000 tokens will receive a gardening pack worth £130 and the six schools (three in Norfolk, three in Suffolk) collecting the most tokens per pupil will also collect £1000 worth of gardening equipment and personal advice from Peter McDermott, head gardener at Enjoy Gardening More.

Where to collect tokens

Tokens will be published in the Eastern Daily Press, Norwich Evening News and East Anglian Daily Times (two on Saturday), Ipswich Star, North Norfolk News, Dereham Times, Fakenham Times, Beccles & Bungay Journal, Lowestoft Journal and Great Yarmouth Mercury.

When to collect

Tokens appear every day (with double tokens in Saturday issues) with the final tokens published on Friday March 27. Schools have until April 3 to submit their tokens.