We think globally, We eat locally! This is the motto of Romanian students of school No. 2 in Piteşti, which is a second-year participant in the We Eat Responsibly project. Their successful march with the aim of encouraging others toward responsible consumption was highly appreciated by local farmers and producers.
Using questionnaires distributed at school and in households, children this year decided to focus on the topic of local and seasonal food. They used interactive and participative ways of learning about responsible food consumption and shared what they learned with the local community.
Students from the Eco-team with help from some others from the school created and illustrated a Code of Responsible Food Consumption. In addition to local and seasonal food, five other themes from the project were also included. In the Code, children encourage others to eat less meat, to buy products without palm oil, to support fair trade and to create a seed bank.
Learning why local is better
For people that buy food in supermarkets, it may seem that there are no seasons and distances: tomatoes, cucumbers, apples and grapes are available throughout the whole year. But in reality, as students learned during the school year, these foods travel long distances and/or are grown in heated greenhouses and that require a great deal of energy. Moreover, it has many negative effects on the environment.
To better understand the concept of responsible eating and spread this knowledge outside the school, they decided to invite parents to visit their school. Teachers, parents and students created groups and played an educational game. Teams analyzed two types of food and they were supposed to place the products on an axis of Responsible food (smiling face) – Irresponsible food (sad face). The decision on where to place the food was based on criteria such as the distance the food travels, the degree of processing and nutritional qualities. In most cases the children were the most informed about the topic.
Campaign in the streets
Students didn’t want to keep the information they learned during the school year for themselves. They decided to organize a street campaign about local and seasonal food. For this important event, students prepared themselves in advance. They also involved children outside of the Eco-team and divided the tasks between them.
Some of the children posted fliers at several places in town, others created and drew posters, while others wrote invitations. Children walked through the city center to the town hall market, where they talked to the local producers. Teachers, guests form the Environmental Protection Agency, the County Council, the Parents’ Association of the School and the media joined them.
During the march, children spoke with people from the town of Piteşti about local and seasonal food and gave them flyers and the project magazine. They explained to them what an ecological footprint is and that they can make their personal footprint much lower if they choose seasonal and locally grown products instead of imported ones. The local farmers and producers that sell their products at the market highly appreciated that children prefer local and seasonal food and that they encourage others to do so as well.
