“Eat local, think global” with this motto a three-year project co-funded by the European Union (DGDEVCO – DEAR) aims to train and engage young students to face their responsibilities as global citizens, starting with what they eat every day.
Poverty, climate crisis, and migration are expressions of global society as much as the new frontiers of science and medicine. The mass food system negatively impacts the environment and people’s health. More than 800 million people go hungry while food is wasted in richer countries. More than 1 billion people are overweight, especially young people. The rights of consumers and producers are threatened every day.
“EAThink2015 – eat local, think global” aims to train and engage primary and secondary school teachers and students to promote critical education and training tools to meet the challenges of global development. The focus of the project will insist on food sovereignty and food security to reason about sustainability and critical consumption.
The first year of the project includes the involvement of schools in EXPO2015 with the Food Cloud Exhibition, an interactive exhibition on food and where the best works selected from the “Not Just Cheese” photo contest launched in March for all primary and secondary schools were also displayed. Also activated was the “EAThink2015 Media Center,” a web journalism editorial staff made up of university and secondary school students who will produce daily news and commentary on EXPO 2015 activities and main events.
The project website ( www.eathink2015.org ) is the dedicated tool for teachers and students, with free information and educational modules around food sovereignty and food security. Also in the works is an app to map food-related best practices.
Youngsters, on the other hand, can download a free APP to have fun while learning about the seasonality of foods.
The project involves numerous foundations and civil society organizations in Italy (Fondazione ACRA-CCS which is the lead partner, Associazione CISV, Fondazione Cariplo, Compagnia di San Paolo) and in Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Spain.
Foundation co-funds the initiative but is also an operating partner by serving as AMBASSADOR of the project and theme with the aim of facilitating connections with other key players at the European level. Foundations, local government associations, public and private actors who may have the potential to strongly support the initiative and create pathways to sustainability (dissemination of products, materials, methodologies, participation in global events of interest in 2015-2017, etc.).
