Canteen to Classroom
-
The creators of these resources write:
“Educating children on the impact of their food choices is essential in nurturing future generations that are both health and environmentally conscious. With this in mind, ProVeg UK have developed a brand-new educational programme – Canteen to Classroom – in order to teach children about the food they eat: where it comes from, how it is made, and its impact on our health and the planet. With 24 high-quality, evidence-based free lesson plans, we save teachers precious time and effort.”
Resources are organised into early years (3-5), Key Stage 1 (5-7), lower KS2 (7-9) and upper KS2 (9-11). The two minute YouTube video above introduces the resources, and the topics covered, including food waste, climate change, growing food, and exploring the types of food we eat.
Their resources target specific age groups and aspects of just, fair and sustainable food production and justice. All resources are free, new users will need to enter an email address to access them.
ProVeg UK are a non-profit working with schools, caterers, councils, and local authorities across the UK to make school meals healthier and more planet-friendly through their innovative School Plates programme, and their new Canteen to Classroom resources.
-
This resource was sourced by the research team, rather than recommended by an educator taking part in the research. However, educators working at a range of educational stages talked about using food as a way of exploring climate justice locally and globally with their students. For example:
“Something that I talked about in my interview was [that] children have such a strong sense of justice, and with so many people going hungry, maybe we could have a mock debate about food poverty and what can we do to help that. So, being able to tie discussions on food waste to talking about climate change, and then subsequently climate justice can be a really interesting way of pulling things together and showing the impact of them, and giving power to their voice, and thinking and actions.” Newcastle-based primary educator
“So I've been doing it [teaching on food] in a bit of geography and a bit of PSHE, when we've been talking about the justice side of it. So [...] with the lower years, there was the food bank that was happening with the school as well, and that was documented where the students were taking the food and using the leftover food from the Co-op [supermarket] to make different recipes that so the food wasn't getting wasted. So the students would then write that down. And then that was that created a bit of a display on the wall, of what they've used, and their recipes with pictures. So it was all documented that way. So it's pretty visual.” Newcastle-based primary educator