School Food Climate Challenge: creating educational digital tools for educators to inspire students to become true change makers in our transition to a sustainable food system in Europe.

<< Background >>Our food system causes 1/3 of global emissions and is the primary driver of biodiversity loss. We need to shift from climate-intensive global food trade to fair, short distribution networks that embed food systems in local economies, fostering trust between producers and consumers.Youth voices must be amplified in food and climate discussions, enabling everyone to contribute to solutions. Education and citizen participation are crucial: food and environmental education at all school levels, transparency, and knowledge sharing will lead to equitable solutions.The momentum for education for sustainable development is stronger than ever. Global issues like climate change require lifestyle shifts and new ways of thinking and acting. We need new skills, values, and attitudes for more sustainable societies.Our project believes small individual changes can make a big difference when multiplied. The multipliers are young people in the secondary schools. We provided teachers with resources to engage students in meaningful projects and non-formal learning activities, creating desired changes and strengthening opportunities for youth to engage in the environmental sector.<< Objectives >>Our objective was to provide teachers with educational and training resources to inspire young people about a positive vision of the future and kick-start their interest in innovative solutions, tools and concepts that will help make the EU food systems fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly. Our project sought to inspire young people to be environmentally active, educated and able to realize the change they want to see. During the project the partners developed an online platform to share teaching and learning resources for teachers and students on how we can all make changes in our lifestyles to help combat climate change and environmental damage. The digital resources and tools enable teachers to educate students in the problematic of today’s food system, about the EU Farm to Fork strategy, and engage students into formal and non-formal educational activities and projects in and around their schools to develop their skills and competences to actively seek local solutions to put our food systems on a sustainable path. Based on the success of the YFCC engagement tool the project sucesfully achieved its objective. << Implementation >>To achieve the project objectives, the following activities were implemented:Sharing innovation educational resources and best practice examplesThe newly developed educational portal serves as an open resource, providing teachers with access to training materials. For each thematic area, the online platform offers a range of educational materials, each explicitly linked to relevant aspects of the Farm to Fork strategy.Engagement of target groupsThe project inspired and empowered target groups to effect positive change through incremental, practical measures. The engagement initiative, the Young Food Change Makers Challenge, serves as a call to action for educational institutions and students. This challenge encouraged participants to implement projects within their school communities, addressing food-related challenges.Multiplying practical solutions Various digital media platforms were utilized to widely distribute project outputs. Through our established networks, multiplier events, and targeted dissemination activities, we endeavoured to propagate project results, reach a broad audience, and catalyse change on a larger scale.<< Results >>The project produced these results:1.Online Educational Platform: Available at schoolfoodclimatechallenge.eu, the platform offers educational tools and a call to action for students and teachers to support a sustainable food system in Europe. Resources are available in English, German, Czech, and Slovak. The platform has had 5,514 unique visitors, 7,210 visits, and 32,636 page views.2.Young Food ChangeMakers Challenge: This engagement activity encourages schools to plan and execute projects addressing major food challenges. The platform provides criteria, topics, ideas, and training tools for teachers. In the second project year, 44 schools from 10 countries implemented 86 projects.3.Multiplying Practical Solutions: Project results and solutions have been shared widely. Partners have integrated the new resources into their daily work.Our project provides secondary school teacher with resources to engage young people into meaningful projects and learning activities to create change, as well as support and strengthen opportunities for young people to volunteer in the environmental sector. The results enable students to learn new skills and acquire key competences to make a positive change in/around the school communities.