Sustainable food for kindergartens: Open educational resources for pedagogues, caterers and kitchen staff Erasmus Project

Project Title

Sustainable food for kindergartens: Open educational resources for pedagogues, caterers and kitchen staff

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 vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Environment and climate change; Integration of refugees; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

In the Strategic Partnership „Sustainable food for kindergartens“ 8 partners from 7 countries developed an e-learning course and interactive online portal, offering learning materials and Open Educational Resources (OERs) on sustainable food in kindergartens for pedagogues, kindergarten staffs, caterers and kitchen staff.

The vocational profile of and requirements for pedagogues and staffs employed in kindergartens, children crèches and schools in Germany and other countries in Europe have changed radically in the past 10-15 years. In nearly all European countries the number of hours a child stays in kindergarten is increasing. Pedagogues and kindergarten staff have to take over responsibility for a lot of new tasks among others the care for food and full board service with 2-3 meals a day. The project accomplished to enhance and complete the professional profile of kindergarten pedagogues and staffs by learning offers on sustainability of meals and food.

New challenges for kindergarten staffs and manager rise for the integration of refugee children and families. The kindergarten is the place where families with young children meet and where there is a way to integrate them into the European culture through direct interaction and knowledge exchange. But to integrate families as well as children from other countries kindergarten staff has to have basic knowledge about the eating habits, the religious background and rituals. Parts of the project’s results contributed especially to these needs.

Target groups were pedagogues, cooking personnel, kitchen staff and chefs in kindergartens, caterers of kindergartens, who need a specific education in sustainability and its aspects in nutrition and food system that they can transfer this knowledge to children and their parents. Another important target group were headmasters and personnel manager of kindergartens, decision makers in public administration, universities and higher schools educating (future) teachers, students and parents.

The partnerships consisted of 8 partners from 7 countries – Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. The partners are institutions with experiences and competences in different areas of sustainability and education, this partnership covers a wide area within the European Union.

The first results of the project are “Guidelines and a Didactic Concept for training on Sustainable food for kindergartens“ (O1). The guidelines support pedagogues and kindergarten staffs to apply the teaching materials, the e-learning course and other learning tools and OER of the portal. They are provided as PDF for download and print in all partner languages and English.

The second result comprises the content for training course “Sustainable food in kindergartens” (O2) for 5 thematic modules with learning offers for pedagogues, kindergarten staffs and manager, kitchen staff and caterer. It is provided as PDF for download and print in all partner languages and English.

The third result is the Online Portal „Sustainable food for kindergartens“ (IO3), available in all partner languages. It comprises a broad spectrum of interactive educational resources – the e-learning course, additional training materials, as well as interactive tools like videos, audios, photo galleries, blogs, chats, forums, assessments, working groups etc.

The fourth result is the English pilot e-learning course „Sustainable food for kindergartens“ (O4). With 5 thematic modules it provides learning offers for pedagogues, kindergarten staffs and manager, kitchen staff and caterer. The course is based on learning materials and course content developed before. The course is provided at the online portal as OER and based on the Learning Management System EasyAdmin, which has been developed especially for this project.

The fifth results are seven national versions of the e-learning course „Sustainable food for kindergartens“ (IO5) in all seven partner languages, shaped according to their particular national conditions, requirements and needs. It consists of 5 modules. Based on a testing with important national target groups and stakeholders and regarding evaluations revised final versions are published on national online platforms in each partner country.

The sixth results comprises the Evaluation Report about the testing of the functionality of the e-learning course and online portal “Sustainable food in kindergartens” in practical application in all partner countries; and the evaluation of the results of the test. Furthermore the report includes the overall evaluation of the project, its results, transfer and dissemination, and the project management.

Further results are dissemination workshops and multiplier events carried out for pedagogues, cooking personnel, kitchen staff and chefs in kindergartens, caterers of kindergartens and educational institutions and an international network established within the project.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 282175 Eur

Project Coordinator

Equalita, Institut für Qualifizierung und Vernetzung in Europa e.V. & Country: DE

Project Partners

• VU PO AGROBIZNES I RAZVITIE NA REGIONITE – PLOVDIV
• Ökomarkt e.V.
• Celostno izobrazevanje o prehrani Tanja Bordon s.p.
• THE SOIL ASSOCIATION LIMITED
• Centro LIbero Analisi e Ricerca (CLAR)
• Zivy venkov
• Kaiblinger & Zehetgruber OG