Competitions
Veg Box Competition
Entries for 2027 will open in October
To register your school’s interest in taking part, please get in touch by emailing education@yas.co.uk and we will be in touch when entries open
About
Our annual Vegetable Box Competition is sure to capture the imaginations of schoolchildren, getting your pupils hands-on with growing, inspiring them to make healthy food choices and boosting their confidence.
The competition is free to enter, open to all primary schools across Yorkshire and culminates in a free visit to the Great Yorkshire Show for the finalists!
Our theme for the 2027 competition is ‘H2Grow’ looking at the importance of water conservation and its role in growing food.
Scroll down the page for everything you need to know about the competition.
Why enter?
Over many years of running this competition, we have seen first-hand the incredible impact it has made on children and schools.
From trying gardening for the very first time and choosing what vegetables to plant, to taking responsibility for watering and protecting plants from bugs, the Veg Box Competition offers children opportunities they may not ordinarily have, inspires their imaginations and boosts their team-working skills.
It is also a fantastic way to include food, farming and healthy diets into a school’s lesson planning – fuelling children’s understanding and appreciation of the work of farming families to produce food for us all to eat, and the importance of caring for the environment.
Many schools that get involved are so inspired by taking part in the competition, that they go on to establish gardening clubs and adding new outdoors growing spaces for their children and wider community to benefit from.
The benefits and possibilities are endless!
Competition theme
Every year we set a theme for the design of the vegetable boxes, exploring the importance of looking after the essential building blocks to producing food to feed us all.
In previous years we have examined the using waste products to support growing, the role of pollinators and the important role worms play in keeping soil healthy. This year, the competition focuses on the theme of ‘H2Grow’.
For 2027, we are encouraging schools to explore the importance of water as a precious resource, water conservation and the role of water in growing food.
How to take part and getting you started
Entries are now open and all age groups in primary schools across Yorkshire are invited to take part.
To enter, simply email us at education@yas.co.uk and we’ll be back in touch with all the information you need to get started.
Entries will close on Friday 30 January 2026.
In February we will deliver your School Vegetable Box Pack so you can start your project. All entries will receive:
- A flatpack vegetable box and compost from Yorganics
- A bag of compost from Yorganics for all entrants re-using their previous vegetable box
- A starter pack of seeds
- A pack of nutrient rich natural worm castings fertiliser from Wormganix
- A special growing diary so you can chart your veg box journey
- A special online portal with great growing tips from Grow to School
*Please note: For our new growers and any schools wanting a new box for their 2026 project, flat-pack boxes are provided for £15 with compost donated by Yorganics Compost.
What else you will receive from our sponsors
Our sponsors Wormganix are offering each school their own worm pack, a litre of soil which contains hundreds of worm cocoons (eggs).
You will receive instructions to add your own worms to your veg box: please note, the pack will need immediate attention on receipt.
All schools will also receive a special growing diary from Pink Pig, ready to be filled with your growing journey and all you learn about wriggly worms, and how they live, grow, reproduce and benefit the soil.
New to growing? No problem. We will also send you a detailed information pack offering handy hints to successfully grow your produce.
Once your box has been put together, get growing and use your growing diary to document the full journey of the children’s growing journey.
We love to see this story told with photographs, samples of children’s work, recipe ideas and poems.
And that’s not all! We hope your school will continue its growing journey and to help you do so, all our entrants will receive a useful guide from Grow to School CIC to inform your future growing journey.
Judging and competition finale
In June 2026, we will contact all participating schools to arrange for our judges to visit your school, meet your young growers, see their growing diary and, of course, their vegetable box.
Following this visit we will let you know if your vegetable box has been selected as a finalist to be collected for display at the Great Yorkshire Show in July.
We will arrange pick-up of our finalists’ boxes prior to the Show and return them the week following the Show. Please note the Great Yorkshire Show runs from 14-17 July so we will be unable to return the boxes before the end of Summer Term.
Finalists will receive tickets for their group to attend the Great Yorkshire Show on Wednesday 15 July 2026.
They will be invited to attend the grand final and present their box to the judges.
This will be followed by a special presentation at lunchtime where all participating schools will be celebrated, and the winners will be announced.
Want to know more? Read about our 2025 Vegetable Box Competition winners, here.
Special thanks
The Yorkshire Agricultural Society is very grateful to the competition’s sponsors, headline sponsor Asda, as well as Wormganix, Yorganics Compost, Pink Pig, Grow to School CIC and Cone Exchange.
For further information email us at education@yas.co.uk
Receive the latest education news and activities straight to your inbox!
Please select your area of interest below