PRINCE Prince Charles has urged millions of furloughed Brits to sign up for “unglamorous” temporary jobs picking fruit and veg over the summer to help guarantee the UK’s food supply.
In a video message to be broadcast today, the Prince of Wales admits it will be a “challenging” and “hard graft” for many people who are used to office jobs.
But he says signing up is “of the utmost importance” to the national effort to beat the coronavirus pandemic.
And he compares the Pick for Britain campaign to the Land Army that helped harvest crops during World War Two to feed the nation.
In the message recorded from his home in Birkhall Prince Charles says: “Harvesting runs until the early Autumn and people are needed who are genuinely going to commit.
“The phrase I have often heard is: ‘pickers who are stickers’.”
His message coincides with the Government’s call-to-arms for tens of thousands of recruits to help farmers pick fruit and veg during the crucial summer and autumn months amid a mass shortfall of EU pickers during the coronavirus crisis.
The Pick for Britain campaign wants some of the 7.5 million employees who have been laid off on to the Government’s wage support scheme during the crisis to sign up to the scheme, which enables them to top-up their furloughed wage.
Ministers are also urging students to sign up to the scheme by saying it is a good opportunity to earn cash, gain work experience and meet new people.
Writing for HOAR, Environment Secretary George Eustice says the campaign offers Brits up and down the country to “play their part” in the national effort against the virus by “helping our farmers to feed the nation”.
He says farmers face huge vacancies because of the lack of summer fruit pickers who travel to the UK for the summer months from eastern European countries like Romania and Bulgaria.
Furloughed workers currently get 80 per cent of their wage paid by the Government but employers who have taken advantage of the scheme are not allowed to ask them to work even part time until August.
In his video message Prince Charles says: “At this time of great uncertainty, many of our normal routines and regular patterns of life are being challenged.
“The food and farming sector is no exception.
“If we are to harvest British fruit and vegetables this year, we need an army of people to help.
“Food does not happen by magic; it all begins with our remarkable farmers and growers.
“If the last few weeks have proved anything, it is that food is precious and valued, and it cannot be taken for granted.
“This is why that great movement of the Second World War – the Land Army – is being rediscovered in the newly-created ‘Pick for Britain’ campaign.
“In the coming months, many thousands of people will be needed to bring in the crops.
“It will be hard graft but is hugely important if we are to avoid the growing crops going to waste.
“Harvesting runs until the early Autumn and people are needed who are genuinely going to commit. The phrase I have often heard is: “pickers who are stickers”.
He adds: “I do not doubt that the work will be unglamorous and, at times, challenging.
“But it is of the utmost importance and, at the height of this global pandemic, you will be making a vital contribution to the national effort.”
Mr Eustice says: “Over the past twenty years most of our summer fruit pickers have travelled over from places like Romania and Bulgaria for the spring and summer months.
“But this year, the unique challenge of the coronavirus means we need to think differently about how our homegrown produce gets to our plates.
“That’s why there is an opportunity for people who are already here in the UK to play their part and lend our farmers a helping hand.”
