EATING FOR LIFE: healthy eating education at school Erasmus Project

Project Title

EATING FOR LIFE: healthy eating education at school

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

According to the World Health Organisation, the worldwide prevalence of obesity nearly doubled between 1980 and 2008.Country estimates for 2008 record that over 50% of both men and women in the WHO European Region were overweight, and roughly 23% of women and 20% of men were obese.• Based on the latest estimates in European Union countries, 30-70% of adults are overweight and obesity affects 10-30% of adults.• Estimates of the number of overweight infants and children in the WHO European Region rose steadily from 1990 to 2008. Family affluence was found to be a significant indicator of overweight or obesity in around half of the countries surveyed in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) Survey undertaken by the WHO: those from lower affluence families were more likely to be overweight or obese. This pattern was strongest in western Europe.Over 60% of children who are overweight before puberty will be overweight in early adulthood. Childhood obesity is strongly associated with risk factors for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, orthopaedic problems, mental disorders, underachievement in school and lower self-esteem. The WHO Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity encapsulates an important package of comprehensive and integrated recommendations that will inspire and foster even more action at the European level. The Commission’s recommendations to address childhood obesity cover six areas: • promotion of intake of healthy foods; • promotion of physical activity; • preconception and pregnancy care; • early childhood diet and physical activity; • health, nutrition and physical activity for school-age children; and • weight management.Such a massive agenda could not be addressed in a small scale project such as this, so the principal aim of this project is therefore to introduce the basic principles of healthy eating to schools and students, and to develop effective ways to encourage students and school communities to examine their eating habits and modify them in order to promote healthy outcomes. The project will encourage and facilitate schools, teachers and pupils to share knowledge and good practice about the ways that healthy eating is encouraged and supported in a number of European countries.The project will ask young people from each of the partner schools to examine some of the food options and choices made by young people in the participating countries. Through a series of practical, planned and shared events in five countries, working with significant groups such as parents and teachers, healthy eating will be investigated and encouraged. It will be supported by the creation of a bank of healthy eating resources contributed by the participating schools and contained on a dedicated project website, which will be linked to each of the partner schools’ own websites, and which will provide a sustainable legacy from this project for those schools and their communities.In the first year of the project, in each country involved, partner schools will:- Research the incidence of obesity and poor nutritional diet in their country, locality and school- Investigate the eating habits in their country, locality and school; – Look at the impact that healthy eating can have in the fight against obesity;- Investigate the strategies that are in place at local and national level to promote and support a healthy diet. – Share their findings via an online website to be established as part of the project activities.As this work continues in each country and school, a series of Blended Mobility activities will begin and continue, one in each of five countries – over the course of the project each of five schools will host, prepare and organise a learning activity attended by a delegation of students and accompanying persons from the other partner schools, at which they will present the food and eating culture of their region and country, highlighting the healthier and unhealthier aspects, and suggesting ways of adapting the diet to promote good health. The success of each event will be evaluated by the participants, and the learning will be shared with the other partners and disseminated more widely though the online tools to stakeholders in each country.On the basis of what they found through their research, and what they learnt from other partners during the Blended Mobility activities, the students of each partner school will: – Develop resources to promote and support healthy eating so that the work of the partnership can be disseminated locally, regionally and nationally. This will include the collation of healthy recipes from each of the project partners, and everything produced will be shared online with students from the other partner schools to provide European added value. Food and nutrition education will also be promoted in each partner school as a curricular activity, with the ultimate aim of incorporating it into each school’s educational programmes.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 134917 Eur

Project Coordinator

Prior Pursglove and Stockton 6th Form College & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Agrupamento de Escolas de Miranda do Corvo
• Liceo Scientifico E. Fermi Cosenza
• G.F. Abela University of Malta Junior College
• Konya Türk Telekom Erol Güngör Sosyal Bilimler Lisesi
• Strinda Upper Secondary School
• Zespol Szkolno Przedszkolny w Mykanowie Gimnazjum im. Noblistow Polskich