Food, Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development

Isendoorn College in Warnsveld, Istituto d’Istruzione Superiore Mattei in Fiorenzuola, and Scuola per l'Europa di Parma have been working together successfully for four years. Over these years we have organised many activities and excursions related to the topics of food, climate and sustainability. We now seek to integrate this into a structured and coherent project that have perfected the content as well as the organisation of the project. During the previous exchanges between our schools we have found food to be a recurring factor in the experience of our pupils. Food is not only one of those things that makes one feel at home, it is also one of the accessible ways of getting to know another culture. Food is what distinguishes one culture from another, but it is also a meeting point and a way of showing hospitality. The project offers a genuine multi-cultural experience that promotes mutual understanding. We want to give pupils confidence in their own cultural identity – the bedrock for their development as European citizens - but we also encourage a European and global perspective. In addition to the cultural aspect, food is a crucial part of to provide Education for Sustainable Development. Lately there has been a widespread movement among young people in Europe to claim more action to preserve our planet. We want to let them develop tools to do so themselves. The global issues of rising population and climate change are intimately connected to the issue of food. One of the main questions for the next generation will be how to feed the world in a sustainable way. During this project pupils will learn to respect and appreciate different cultures and they will think about issues such as equality, sustainability and appreciation of cultural heritage. The pupils will find out for themselves what actions they can take to contribute to a better, more sustainable, future. The main objective of the project is to enable pupils to develop their own projects that they will carry out in their communities in Warnsveld, Parma and Fiorenzuola. These promote the sustainable production and consumption of food and the cultural heritage of food. In addition the project will promote tolerance, co-operation, communication and concern for others and it allows pupils to develop their 21st century skills, such as critical thinking, IT & media skills, debating and public speaking. At the end of the project, pupils are challenged to extent their scope of action to other communities or countries. What can they do to further increase the impact of their interventions? The resulting plans will be the basis for a next generation of pupils that will look across the border of the Netherlands and Italy.