1. develop training that shows how local, sustainable, climate-friendly ingredients can produce international-standard dishes, supporting inclusivity for diverse tastes within today's multicultural Ireland 2. employing this training to engage 10 FSIPs in a one-day blended digital/F2F workshop on effective use of local, sustainable ingredients over imports. This also represents the priority of inclusion and diversity in training, as the Food Service industry employs the highest number of non-Irish nationals 3. publish a digital sustainable cookbook and ingredient-alternative guide (SCIAG) of local produce that reduces the carbon cost of food catering 4. highlight the need to favour Irish crops to preserve this biodiverse and endangered part of Irish cultural heritage 5. disseminate results and resources through social media and a project website 6. record the project as a basis for a scaled-up Erasmus Plus Cooperation Partnership with a multiple EU member consortium
Irish people spend over twice as the EU average on dining out and takeaways (Eurostat). The sourcing of foodstuffs in Ireland, therefore, is heavily dictated by those who create the menus of Food Service outlets. With an ever more multicultural society expecting variety that reflects this, it follows that the decisions that these Food Service Industry Professionals (FSIPs) make on menu offering choice and ingredient sourcing has a direct impact on the environmental and health impact of our Food Systems. In answering its key priority, the Climate Aware Seasonal Kitchen (CASK) project targets FSIPs, providing awareness of this responsibility and training in how to introduce localised Sustainable Food Systems while catering to multicultural tastes. According to the EU: "The link between healthy people, healthy societies and a healthy planet puts sustainable food systems at the heart of the European Green Deal." It seeks to reduce the environmental and climate footprint of the EU food system and transition towards 'competitive sustainability from farm to fork'. The CASK project is a scalable environmental initiative that addresses all four of these goals, delivers measurable results and then informs a future Erasmus + application.