Taste Missions – A New and Innovative Approach to Improve Pupil’s Health Through Food Literacy

Abstract

What makes food, health and children so interesting? Food is one of the primary sources to human life that through a healthy lifestyle can be influencing the future of every individual. Especially children with their future ahead are an important target group that needs focus, since habits are often established at an early age (Piaget, 1969), which also is the case in regards to food and health. To secure the public health and wellbeing of future generations, and to ensure a more sustainable environment and world, we find that teaching children about food, nutrition and health is essential in order to develop a healthy relationship to food and eating habits (Basķale, et al., 2009). Learn4Health, an EU Erasmus+ project, was created in 2016 to develop new and innovative methods to food literacy in European schools, to promote a broader knowledge of the origin of food and food systems, and to foster better health practices through new knowledge and self-efficiency. In the project, we seek to develop several innovative and new approaches that aim to increase food knowledge through interdisciplinary hands-on activities. It is our belief, that such methods can foster motivation and a better understanding of when, what and how food is grown, and thereby improve pupils action competencies in relation to food and health now and in the long-term. This paper focuses on one of the Learn4Health activities, Taste Missions, developed, implemented and evaluated by Wageningen University & Research and aims to illustrate how hands-on food activities can benefit pupils in European public schools. Further, it will describe, analyze and conclude upon the activity, and finally, summarize by discussing Taste Missions in the larger Learn4Health context and in the broader perspective of the public by presenting the HOFA Handbook.