Picture caption: A page from the Food Heroes workshop.
Children and parents in lockdown across Wales are learning how they can play their part in taking care of the planet thanks to an online, interactive Food Heroes workshop.
The free, 30-minute, bilingual workshop, which promotes global sustainability development goals, has been developed by Donna Heath, national sustainability champion for the Culinary Association of Wales (CAW) and pan-Wales learning provider Cambrian Training, through the UNICEF sustainability initiative, the World’s Largest Lesson.
Partners include Worldchefs, the body representing chefs’ organisations around the world, Electrolux and AIESEC.
Donna provides the narration in English, while Hazel Thomas, a hospitality training officer with Cambrian Training, provides a Welsh language version. Both versions are available at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf-ft3uGM4rgSX51X4ReRCQ ,
https://www.facebook.com/CambrianTrainingCompany/videos/225119982152774/ and https://www.facebook.com/CambrianTrainingCompany/videos/819376515218362/ .
The bilingual workshop, which is normally delivered in primary school classrooms, is a free resource for all organisations in the education sector to use and share.
The online version was launched on April 22, Earth Day, an annual event aimed at raising awareness for environmental protection. This year’s theme was climate change.
Filled with fun and educational activities for the whole family, the workshop has reached nearly 10,000 people online to date and Donna is looking forward to introducing it to more primary schools across Wales when the Coronavirus restrictions are lifted.
With most families in lockdown, she hopes that they will take advantage of the learning resource as part of the home schooling of children. She has contacted schools to suggest they share with parents through their own learning platforms.
Food Heroes is one of the Worldchefs Feed the Planet programmes, which aim to inspire sustainable food consumption among communities and professionals and to support people in need through emergency relief, food poverty alleviation and education.
Worldchefs is promoting the programmes because one third of the world’s food currently goes to waste while 800 million people go to bed hungry.
Arwyn Watkins, OBE, CAW president and Cambrian Training’s managing director, is a Worldchefs Feed the Planet Committee member.
“The workshop’s aim is to help children and their parents understand the global sustainability development goals, what they mean and what they can do to help achieve them,” said Donna. “We are inviting whole families to join and learn how they can make a positive change, together.
“As most schools are currently closed, we have decided to bring the workshop to children and families in their homes. It’s about getting children and adults to think about the impact of their decisions and about the small changes they can make which all add up to make a big difference.
“Hopefully, it will make parents think about the food they buy, where they buy it from, what they eat and what they throw away.
“The great thing about having parents at home due to the pandemic is that they do the workshop with their children who ask them questions. I would love to get feedback from children and their parents about the workshop and to receive photos of them in their best superhero pose with an empty plate or their certificate.”
Everybody who completes the workshop is asked to make pledges to reduce food waste and to share them on social media with the hashtags #iamafoodhero and #feedtheplanet . They can also to receive a completion certificate by emailing Donna at donna@cambriantraining.com.
Wales-based schools interested in finding out more about the Worldchefs Feed the Planet programmes are asked to email Donna.
For more information, please contact Arwyn Watkins, OBE, Culinary Association of Wales president, on Tel: 01938 555893 or Duncan Foulkes, publicity officer, on Tel: 01686 650818.
