Short food marketing circuits : another way to consume for European students. Let us favour the short food marketing circuits to avoid food marketing short circuits ! Erasmus Project

Project Title

Short food marketing circuits : another way to consume for European students.
Let us favour the short food marketing circuits to avoid food marketing short circuits !

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Social/environmental responsibility of educational institutions; Teaching and learning of foreign languages; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship

Project Summary

Short food marketing circuit : another way to consume for European students ! Let’s favour the short food marketing circuit to avoid the food marketing short circuit !

Faced with the evolution of climate change and demographic growth, we wanted to make our students aware of the fact that they could consume differently and that their choices could have an impact both on a local scale and on a European scale. We would like to make the students and teachers of our school aware of their responsibilities and introduce them to another form of food supply that are short food circuits. We also wanted to make our students (the future actors of tomorrow) aware that there is another way to consume and that the way they consume can have an important influence on our planet!

Our school has been, like many other schools, affected by the awareness of students to act in the face of global warming and by the desire to become actors in the society in which they live! We carried out this project with the lycée “Liceo Scientifico e Musicale GB Grassi”, a school in the Lecco region of Italy (and with our school: the “Athénée Royal Charles Rogier, Liège – Belgium) because these two schools are of equal importance and both have scientific sections.
The two schools had as common wills and objectives to act with their students in order to make them responsible in the fight against global warming and to make them responsible actors in society. It was in this context that we had the idea of creating this Erasmus + project on the discovery and the roles of short food circuits in our society. It was also in this context and in order to achieve the objectives below that we had chosen to work with students from 16 to 18 years old (so they were in 5th Secondary at the start of the project and in 6th Secondary at the end of project) and who had English as a foreign language in their school curriculum.

The main objective of our two-year Erasmus + project was to introduce short food circuits in Belgium and Italy to the students of our school. The project also had the objective of integrating short food circuits in our school. It also aimed to make students aware that they are actors in the world in which they live and that, as consumers, they have a power of action on our society. Finally, our erasmus + project aimed to create linguistic exchanges in English between two different European cultures. Indeed, English was the language of communication used in this project.

To do this, we had implemented various activities.

The discovery by the students of short food circuits in Liège and Lecco (importance, roles and influences of these). To carry out this activity, we had set up two exchanges with students from the two schools in our partnership: an exchange in 2019 in Lecco and an exchange in 2020 in Liège.
Within the school, the students had chosen to bring short food circuits into our school restaurant. To do this, they set up and carried out a week of seasonal menus with local products from short food circuits in our school canteen.
They also set up a “local apple” day at our school to publicize our project. As well as the creation of a calendar of seasonal fruits and vegetables which they distributed to all of the students during the various activities within our school (for example: at the open day, at the feasts of the school, parent meetings, etc.). They also put in place a manifesto (displayed in our school) using simple gestures to promote short food circuits in everyday life.

Thanks to the dynamism of the students, we achieved the following results: a better knowledge of the short food circuits in Liège and Lecco, a better knowledge of the cultural environment of Liège and Lecco, the establishment of a week of menus in our school canteen based on local products from short food circuits, a positive development with students and teachers faced with the importance of the development of short food circuits (and at a broader level, the importance of our choices of consumers in our consumer society).

The expected benefits in the longer term are the sustainability of the organization by the students of the week of menus based on local products from short food circuits in our school canteen and the participation of our school in the “Nourrir Liège” festival. And also at a level wider than short food circuits: the establishment of a “Green Team” composed only of students whose goal is to make students and teachers of our school aware of the importance of our actions in the face of global warming as well as the development of a « Point Ferme » within our school.

In summary, the long-term benefits of our Erasmus+ project have been to make our students “responsible actors” in the world of tomorrow and to promote the development of short food circuits in schools and in the educational world!

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 27390 Eur

Project Coordinator

Athénée royal Liège 1 & Country: BE

Project Partners

• LICEO SCIENTIFICO GRASSI LECCO