The FOOD-AWARE project will aim to empower European children to grow into responsible and conscientious food consumers. It will train teachers to educate their students from a young age on the following subjects: Local food production; Food waste; Food chain; Resource efficiency: sustainability and circularity; and Responsible food consumption. European children - especially in urban areas - are rarely aware of how their food is made or where it comes from. It is also clear that European farmers are not getting the returns they deserve for the quality-food that they produce to some the highest environmental and welfare standards in the world. However, in the same vein as early education on food and farming, this denotes a clear gap in terms of any kind of early education on taking individual responsibility, not just for our actions but also for our choices, particularly as consumers. Beyond this, the FOOD-AWARE project products will also aim to stir a sense of responsibility towards the planet, the environment and society in general. With the help of fun and interactive comics and activities, as well as educational posters and an educational animated video aimed at children, FOOD-AWARE will train teachers and provide them with what they need to educate young children on these subjects and to plant the seed of their responsible consumption in years to come. As a secondary effect, children are also likely to return home and tell their parents about what they learned - who may be sensitised to this information when it comes from the mouth of their child, making them realise that they have a part to play in securing a sustainable future for the next generation. Other educators or children may also get access to these materials, spreading the word beyond children within participating schools to any parent or educator who sees the value in the subject. Ultimately, FOOD-AWARE will increase awareness among young European children of issues relating to food production and consumption; environmental (and other) implications of food production and consumption; and possible behavioural changes for them to make in future, or their parents to make now, to improve the sustainability of food production in the EU and across the world. FOOD-AWARE will therefore empower young children to build towards more sustainable futures for themselves and their own lives in years to come.
The FOOD-AWARE (Training materials and visual learning tools for early education on environmental sustainability and responsible food consumption) Project implemented from 11/2018 until 12/2020 from 6 partners in 5 EU Countries. Its aim was to empower European children to grow into responsible and conscientious food consumers by training teachers to educate their students from a young age on the following subjects: Local food production; Food waste; Food chain; Resource efficiency: sustainability and circularity; and Responsible food consumption. To achieve its aim the project produced the following outputs: 1) (IO1): Training methodology and training guide A complete training methodology for teacher trainers and teachers (peer learning) to enable them to plan, organise and replicate the teacher training in their schools. 2) (IO2): Project training materials The content and the documentation to support the learning content and delivery of each training module of the teacher training course. 3) (IO3): Project teaching aids The learning content, developed for use in classroom, with students, by their teachers to help them introduce the topics in classroom and plan their students’ learning activities. The work for O2 & O3 was organised in the following Work Packages: IO2/WP1: Project website and online training platform development IO2/WP2: Training materials for teachers - 5 modules IO3/WP1: Interactive student activity sheets IO3/WP2: Educational posters IO3/WP3: Comics for kidsIO3/WP4: Educational video Partners had to adapt to the COVID-19 outbreak and adjust the additional work for each output as described below: IO1: Additions to the methodology utilised for on-line training delivery along with the updated sections that were modified to include any elements that relate to an on-line training content. IO2: On-line training course with all the training content adapted to an on-line asynchronous training model. IO3: Adaptation of the platform with the learning content (teaching aids) on the project’s website to be easily accessed even as individual activities to support teachers to integrate the teaching aids in their students’ on-line learning. The project team included researchers and technician from 2 Universities (University of Dundee & University of Social Sciences), 1 school (Doukas School), 1 international food organisation (ISEKI), 1 agricultural organisation (The Polish Farm Advisory) and 1 organisation from the business sector (PROPEL). Their different backgrounds were on education, professional development, agriculture, comics, food & diet, and website development. To maximise local and EU impact the partners organised either f2f MEs or on-line MEs at a local (partners’ countries) and European level. The European Final Conference was held, on-line, on December 2020, moderated by ISEKI, with 90+ participants and 15+ presenters and speakers (incl. 3 external key-note speakers). The project developed, planned and organised a 3-day training event, on-line, due to COVID-19 pandemic, with the project’s team members as trainers and partners’ internal staff members as trainees. The development of the training was based on IO1, the content of the training was the content developed under IO2 and the teaching aids from O3 were integrated in their respective modules and presented to the trainees along with suggestions, ideas, and activities to implement in their classroom.