Learn4Health (L4H) promotes change in school children´ food culture and health through school interventions aimed at students and teachers. The initiative responds to a call from the European Union (EU White Paper, 2007) for the improvement and innovation in the way food literacy and nutrition is taught and learned in European schools. In this sense, L4H seeks to bridge the gap between teaching/learning in the classroom and the food/health environment of school age children, through project-based curricular activities that use the daily food and eating practices of those students as curricular context. This is a three years strategic partnership of six (6) countries: Denmark, Slovenia, Lithuania, Spain, England and the Netherlands. The initiative uses existing and emerging collaborations between different groups in each of these countries to collect, synthesize, test and deploy "best practices" of health and nutrition. The project aims to promote healthy and sustainable eating among schoolchildren through the development of a model for changing the practices and pedagogies around food and health that can be used in most European countries.At a general level, L4H is based on 1) a focus on the "open school” approach, linking students and teachers to aspects of production and consumption of food, and 2) the development of basic and interdisciplinary skills such as digital, entrepreneurial competence, and language development, using the context of the food, health and nutrition as a teaching/learning substrate. Each country brings forth to the collective a theme or particular area of specialization offering new and innovative approaches to changing health and food culture of school age children. In this sense, L4H uses the everyday food practices of students not only as a resource for curriculum integration, but also as a tool of social inclusion. The project is guided by scientific evidence for the generation of knowledge so its interventions are implemented and evaluated with validated methods. At a specific level, L4H focuses on professional development and mobility of school teachers and university researchers: teachers, with the assistance of researchers, will develop project-based curricular activities on both, the health and eating practices of their own students, and the local food system. To accomplish that, teachers will work closely with other teachers in partner countries to strengthen educational and linguistic capabilities thereof. These teachers will participate in systematic virtual and mobility sessions and sporadic physical mobility events within the collective to share, compare and contrast their own development with others. Such professional development will use the food and health practices of students as part of project-based curricular activities that address current problems in their communities and/or local resources. The process and product of this work will be used by university researchers to design a model for a wider implementation of procedures and technologies that support changes in the food culture and health of school aged European children.L4H integrates Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on student learning (e.g., students and teachers share with peer their activities; comparing the dietary practices of schools in different countries, etc.) and the development of teachers, thus strengthening the role these technologies play in mediating teaching and learning in primary and secondary schools. L4H work will be conducted in three (3) phases. During the first phase, the entire collective, through a series of meetings, will generate a list of 12 hands-on activities on food and health based on their own experiences and best practices. This list will be subjected to consultation between countries to add, modify and /or shorten it. Researchers will begin working closely with schools and teachers during this phase to integrate the resulting activities in the academic calendar of the next school year. During this second phase, project members will empirically examine the impact of the selected instruments on eating patterns, critical knowledge of health, academic performance and viability of the proposed activities in the various contexts in order to further reduce the list to 5-6 instruments, which will then be tested in a wide range of cultural and national contexts. These activities include workshops in the participating countries organized by the national teams of researchers and teachers in the second and third phases of the project. In the final phase, dissemination will increase in intensity and short duration training courses will be offered to researchers and teachers in existing university-based programs, which will affect and impact of higher education beyond the partners involved in the project.
Learn4Health was created as a response to European policies, addressing challenges regarding health, nutrition and obesity prevention at institutional and individual level. Several European policies have identified the need for new, innovative reforms in relation to food, eating, nutrition and health of young people and in specific focusing on food practices of children and the curricular activities that can address these practices and topics in schools. To address such new and innovative reforms, the Learn4Health has worked with interdisciplinary networks and collaborations to make as much impact as possible, combining practice with scientific research. Learn4Health was created to develop skills, methods, collaborative approaches and to enhance food literacy and meet challenges of health, nutrition and obesity prevention through an interdisciplinary collaborative approach. The objective of Learn4Health is to employ children’s everyday food and health practices as learning and teaching contexts for developing problem-based activities, placing pupils in hands-on authentic food activities in everyday contexts. Further, development and assessment of instruments to meet the integration of food practices across different educational and food contexts and aiming at creating sustainability on food and nutrition reforms efforts by providing key professional development activities for teachers in the process of making them Learn4Health ambassadors. 12 organisations have come together to develop, implement and evaluate new and innovative tools, methods and approaches to Hands-on Food Activities (HOFAs) with the goal of improving health and nutrition and prevent obesity for children now and in the long term. Leading the project is Aalborg University from Denmark, with partners from Arden Skole from Denmark, Fundacio per a la Universitat Oberta de Catalunyaand Garbí Pere Vergés from Spain, Centre for Health and Development Murska Sobota and Primary School Franceta Prešerna Črenšovci from Slovenia, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences and Karmelava Balys Buracas Gymnasium from Lithuania, Health Education Trust and Haworth Primary School from the United Kingdom, and Wageningen University & Research and De Hoge Hof from the Netherlands. It is important to mention that the lead and executive manager at AAU is not the same as the original applicant. To enhance the food literacy of children, Learn4Health has successfully developed, implemented and evaluated new and innovative objectives in relation to food, eating, nutrition and health. The activities combine practical and scientific knowledge and experience, placing the children in learning and teaching opportunities in everyday food contexts. This provides the teachers and pupils to work problem-based, providing real everyday food contexts and through co-creation, creating new possibilities, experiences and action competencies as for example farm-to-table approach through new skills, and methods. The pupils have also gained entrepreneurial skills, worked with gardening, kitchens, and other food related contexts, and the methods developed during the project period, have also included possibilities of combining Hands-on Food Activities with other school subjects. The project has successfully developed 8 Hands-on Food Activities. Further, the children have also been working with practitioners in the field of food and food systems, where local food professionals have provided the pupils with insight to i.e. farming. The combination of practice and research within everyday food contexts has proven to increase the food knowledge within the pupils, providing them with action competencies to act and react in a better, more sustainable and healthy way in regards to food and food surroundings now and in the future. To secure the sustainability of the Learn4Health project, all of the Hands-on Food Activities, the results and the assessments are collected in the HOFA Handbook which is publicly available on the project website. Finally, it is worth mentioning that the strengthening of teacher competencies has been an important objective in the Learn4Health project, as teachers has gained key professional competencies and knowledge, through the interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches. The Hands-on Food Activities have provided the pupils with great new knowledge within the theme of food, health and nutrition, but also provided teachers with new learning and teaching skills, methods and approaches, securing the sustainability of the project. Based on the evaluations received, we can conclude that the project had a significant impact on the participants. More than 10.000 people have been reached through the project, 4 scientific conference papers have been published targeting practitioners and the didactical society, and several large-scale dissemination activities were made for the general public.