Sustainability through food literacy in early childhood education and care institutions (FOOD4kids)
Project participants
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FørsteamanuensisAnna Maria Billing -
ProfessorClaudia Melis -
FørsteamanuensisPer-Arvid Wold -
ProfessorKathrine Bjørgen -
ExternalHeidi Bjerkan
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ExternalFarhana Borg
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ExternalGabriella Falcicchio
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ExternalFrancesco Cherubini
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ExternalKonstantin Stadler
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ExternalKristin Langsrud
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ExternalJesper Meisler
FOOD4kids is bringing together research institutions from Norway (QMUC and NTNU), Sweden (Dalarna University) and Italy (Bari University) to develop educational activities and tools aiming at improving food literacy in Early Childhood Education and Care Institutions (ECECIs). The research institutions will work in close cooperation with the ECEC chain Trondhjems Asylselskap (including ten ECECIs) and with Geitmyra Credo Food Culture Centre for Children (Trondheim). This is an educational centre in Trondheim (Norway), where children can experience preparingsustainable and healthy food side-by-side with professional chefs and highly trained educators. The project will use a multidisciplinary approach to gain knowledge about how ECECIs can reduce their carbon footprint, mitigate biodiversity loss and promote health. We will collect data by means of questionnaires and interviews from the staffand the children in ECECIs, and, perform a Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the food items that are the bulk of childrenʼs diet in ECECIs. This will allow us to develop a research based, easy to use, free of charge digital tool to assess the health and environmental impact of food items, customized for ECECIs, which will be the main outcome of the project. The interview data will be analysed by both quantitative and qualitative methods to 1) investigate and contrast food choices in ECECIs in three European countries and 2) investigate young childrenʼs knowledge about sustainability issues and natural food webs. Finally, we will develop and test pedagogic tools and activities that areeffective in educating for sustainability and health. Findings from this project will be implemented in the teaching offuture ECEC teachers and will contribute to a better understanding of sustainability and how to introduce this topic to kindergarten children.