European sustainability vs. food waste – intercultural solutions to find our way towards a sustainable “super meal” in the European Union Erasmus Project

Project Title

European sustainability vs. food waste –
intercultural solutions to find our way towards a sustainable “super meal” in the European Union

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Energy and resources; Economic and financial affairs (incl. funding issues); Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

The project “European food sustainability vs. food waste” involved students and teachers from five different countries and backgrounds (Germany, Italy, France, Poland, and Spain) in an effort to discover and learn about the resources, components and habits related to food and consumption habits while they were analyzing and working with their own culture and the culture of their partner schools. All the staff in our schools, parents, local/regional cultural associations and local authorities were invited to take part in the activities proposed by our project.

Here are the results:
After visiting the Gundlach and Oetker companies as well as a package-free shop during our learning activity in Bielefeld (Germany), we developed seven criteria for “super packaging”. Packages should be reusable, recyclable, organic, pleasing to the eye, protective, light and easy to transport.
The focus of this next step was on consuming local food instead of food being imported from all over the world. By this, costs can be reduced, there will be less pollution and climate change can be slowed down. The students developed ideas to raise awareness of “green food” in their family, at school and in their city.
The focuses of the second learning activity in Hirson (France) were aspects of healthy food and healthy eating habits. The students developed strategies and ideas for school and everyday life, such as
– limiting the consumption of products containing “hidden” sugar
– having appropriate lunch times to avoid having snacks
– introducing longer breaks at school
– protecting people of “aggressive advertisements” for snacks, fast food and sweets
– eating less, local and healthy
– getting more physical exercise
– taking one’s time to cook and eat.
The main thesis of the next step towards our “European Super Mail” was that half of the world’s food production is thrown away. The European laws however require that companies/supermarkets are obliged to sell their products before the expiry date or to throw them away though they can still be consumed. By changing the laws one could reduce the waste of food by approximately 30%.
Finally, the students developed criteria to avoid food waste and came up with advice for people in Europe to shop more sustainably. In order to keep food fresh longer and keep it from spoiling, we should check what we really need, shop more frequently but in smaller quantities, store food appropriately, use leftovers efficiently, share them with others or freeze them.

The final results were published online in an e-book written by participating teachers and students to ensure that our ideas will be spread throughout Europe. The e-book has already been presented at the European Department of Agriculture in Brussels. It can be viewed and downloaded amongst other resources at the project’s website http://our-european-super-meal.de/.

All in all, we intended to develop positive attitudes/habits and respect towards healthy food and add to the consumers’ education by contrasting and gaining awareness of the differences and similarities. We also analyzed results with people from other cultures and tried to promote the concept of European citizenship through intercultural dialogue on health and social issues. We intended to help our students to grow a sense of belonging, not only to their own society and culture, but also to a larger social community – Europe. The main goal apart from content was to teach our pupils to work collaboratively regarding specific topics across Europe and as a result to forge their identity as citizens of Europe. Moreover, this partnership with European schools enabled us to motivate the students in their learning when they were given the opportunities to compare different educational systems and methodologies and to participate in the daily life of some European schools.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 90455 Eur

Project Coordinator

Hans-Ehrenberg-Schule & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. ks. Piotra Skargi w Sedziszowie Mlp.
• LYCEE JOLIOT CURIE
• Liceo “E. Ainis”
• IES LEONARDO TORRES QUEVEDO