Schools and early learning centres have just five days to enter a competition to win a collection of George the Farmer storybooks, as Rabobank and the agricultural education brand mark five years of their Children’s Book Week partnership.
Rabobank’s Rabo Community Fund is teaming up with George the Farmer to award 100 educational institutions a collection of 14 Australian-made storybooks for their libraries. The competition closes this Sunday June 14, with winners to be announced before Book Week, which runs from August 22 to 28.
Entries can be submitted via the Rabobank website, with terms and conditions available through the competition link.
Rabobank community engagement manager Skye Ward said the partnership, now in its fifth year, had generated strong interest from schools, kindergartens, pre-schools, early learning centres and childcare centres each time it had run.
“This is now the fifth year Rabobank has partnered with George the Farmer to celebrate Book Week. Each year, we are blown away by the number of applications we receive from educational institutions, indicating the demand for these engaging resources,” she said.
“Watching children, teachers and librarians eagerly lean in to learn about farming has been really rewarding.”
To mark the five-year milestone, five of the winning schools will also receive a live online Meet the Author session with George the Farmer founder and author Simone Kain, which will include a personal video message from a Rabo Client Council member to help connect students with a real-life farmer and the story of how food is produced.
Ward said the George the Farmer stories connect well with young readers in rural areas while giving those in urban areas a greater understanding and appreciation of agriculture, aligning with the Rabo Community Fund’s aim of enhancing connections between urban and rural communities.
Since launching the partnership, the collaboration has seen more than 7,000 George the Farmer books donated to educational institutions and events across the country, reaching more than 700,000 children.
George the Farmer began as an interactive story app in 2015, with founder Simone Kain since expanding the brand to include virtual reality experiences, music, performances and paddock-to-plate videos available on YouTube and ABC iView, alongside free curriculum-aligned educational resources.
Kain said the content was especially designed to engage children who had not yet developed a love of reading or learning.
“Our lives are intrinsically linked to the land, whether you hail from a big city, a rural town or a remote slice of Australia, and the George the Farmer team passionately believe that knowledge is power,” she said.
“Our myriad of George the Farmer resources are helping to educate and inspire the next generation, the future leaders, big thinkers, innovators, makers, fixers, creatives, teachers, policy makers and farmers.
“Each year, we receive photos of excited children participating in school Book Week parades dressed as George and Ruby Farmer.”
“Our partnership with Rabobank aims to enhance agricultural literacy, with the goal of informing students and hopefully sparking their interest in future careers within the sector.”
Since its launch in 2021, the Rabo Community Fund has invested more than $4 million in national and local initiatives to help address key agribusiness and community challenges.
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