Main achievements and results

The project focused on local and slow food in a practical and active way by engaging the participants, letting them practice and learn from each other about local food, about the process of growing, cultivating and producing local products, the origins of products, where and how families do their shoppings and about seasonal gastronomic traditions. We also focused on the 12th goal of UN which is “Responsible consumption and production” raising an overall awareness about sustainability, reduction of food waste and plastic pollution on European and local level.

The main achievements and results were that the goals were accomplished in the sense that all participants experienced the differences of local food, learned about the production and growing process of the food from the 3 countries. They got hands on experience by cooking and doing small workshops and tasting food from various countries. In the result of the questionnaires it is obvious that the participants have learned to appreciate and understand different gastronomies and cultures and have become more open minded and tolerant. They also learnt about healthy and sustainable diets, how what we eat is linked to history and to surrounding conditions, and the transformation of landscape to enhance production. In the process of the project they have made strong bonds between each other become friends, so multicultural friendship has arised. Another important part of the project is also the engagement of the host families in the project where the participants have been involved in family life with food traditions being a crucial part of family life in each country. In relation to the 12th SDG goal we have acknowledged that from the time that we started the project the consciousness about it has developed rapidly in the 3 participating schools. The rise of the awareness in general has been an obvious part of the project but not only due of the project itself but also because of the changing policies in school education and learning materials.

The participants learnt to tolerate and appreciate food from various regions, learnt to talk about food and specific ingredients. The activities were divided into various themes strongly related to food such as history, environment, food production, health, food traditions, sustainability and nutrition amongst others. Students looked into the question of why they eat what they eat in order to realise how the climate is fundamental on the products we are able to grow, and the animals we can raise and therefore closely linked to what we eat. During the activities the participants explored and discovered different tastes, smells and textures that are new to them. The participants recognised differences and similarities and reflected upon their experiences and gained confidence and tolerance towards other cultures. When participants tought about their own gastronomic traditions and recipes by cooking together with participants from other countries they understood the value of their own cultural heritage as of the others and reflected on how to help the environment and preserve the resources each country has. Through the project activities the participants also focused on sustainability, found ways to reduce plastic packaging while shopping and food waste. Comparing “fast food “ to “local food” looking into nutritional values ideas of more healthy “ fast food” were set forward based on the tasting and cooking experiences with local ingredients.

We fulfilled all the objectives planned for the project despite the problems we had to face due to covid 19, we had to carry out the first activity on line and we had to change the order of the mobilities and reassign roles to the countries involved but keeping in mind the need to reach the goals set for the project.