The concrete objectives are: -To increase awareness of healthy food, rich in micro and macronutrients among Europe’s youth. -To help youth choose a career path in the food industry, creating societal resilience. -Understanding value creation in sustainable food production and consumption. -Raise and address the issue of hidden hunger in Europe, by targeting three regions in three countries. -Raise the issue of the lack of young personnel in the food industry. -Value the notion that the health of the next generations rests on the consumption and eating habits of young people. The long-term objectives of the project are: -Entrepreneurship in the food sector. -Supporting increased uptake of youth in jobs in the food industry (tourism, gastronomy, production). -Increased food security in regional Europe. -Reduce stress on strained European health systems by reducing deaths attributed to non-communicable diseases
Our aim while penning the project had been to address the issue of healthy and sustainable food besides encouraging young minds to think of a future in the food industry. While youth today consume food, they were nevertheless deficient in a multitude of macro and micronutrients. The stress in food production and the extreme cases of ultra-processed foods being easily accessible to young populations made us nervous. Hence, our project was to support youth to appreciate the process of cooking food, of sourcing the ingredients locally and cherish self-made food while simultaneously making sure they were getting the right intake of the necessary nutrients to lead a healthy life. The project aimed to create a ‘Guidebook on Healthy Living and Sustainable Food Consumption’ in five languages that addressed the issues like sources of our food, hidden hunger, sustainable food production, macro and micronutrient indicators to healthy living, how to go about bio-food and the issues of growing in local gardens and culminating with the case of the food industry and why youth need to open up their career options.