A class of year five students from Charlestown South Public School in NSW will be swapping their school shoes for wellies this year after winning a national competition to go on the ultimate field trip.

Cereal manufacturer Kellogg’s will organise for the entire class to travel to Manildra where they’ll meet a farming family that has been growing wheat for Kellogg’s cereals for over 50-years. After getting a taste for life on the farm the students will go on an educational tour of the Manildra wheat mill to see how many wheat based foods are made.

The competition, run in partnership with Kidspot, is part of Kellogg’s Seed to Spoon campaign which aims to help educate students on the origins of everyday food items like breakfast cereal and provide a hands-on experience of Australian agriculture.

Charlestown South Public’s entry  which said, “Enthusiastic, highly motivated students who have enquiring minds and passion to live healthy lives, deserve opportunities to learn, first hand, where their food originates” was chosen as the winner from over 500  entries from parents and teachers across Australia.

Recent research found that whilst 96 per cent of Aussie kids aged between 10-12 years  have an excellent understanding of agriculture and the role Australian farming plays in the food chain, almost two thirds had never had an opportunity to visit a farm suggesting that the school field trip has become a thing of the past.

Charlestown South Public School’s Principal Colin Johnson said his students were excited to be chosen to visit a farm that produces ingredients they eat every day.

“The field trip really gives them the unique opportunity to take what they read and hear in a classroom and apply it to real life, and see the hard work behind the food they find on supermarket shelves,” Mr Johnson said.

After the farm, the students will follow the wheat grains to the Manildra Group mill. Manildra Stockfeed and Livestock Manager Tim Wirth says, “It’s great to see Kellogg’s giving young city kids a chance to understand the importance of farming to our society and raise the awareness through hands-on experience.”

The students will also be given the opportunity to document their visit to the farm and mill so they can share the experience with other classes at their school and students across the nation.

Kellogg’s proudly uses 100 per cent Australian grown grains in all of its cereals made in Australia, with 77,000 tonnes of wheat supplied to Kellogg’s each year from the NSW-region, equalling around 2.5 billion bowls of cereal.