When we talk about the future, it is reasonable that our children get to show the way

Publicerat av Fellbe den

Where do you start if you want to do something from scratch – with the children, of course. Children have a natural curiosity and an open and honest attitude. At the same time, it is to our children that we must hand over the baton – then it is reasonable that our children help shape the future, because they are the ones who will live in it and not us.


SESAM is a project that introduces school children to innovative technology in relation to food production and eating habits, as well as overall societal sustainability challenges.
GENERATION CLIMATE AND FOOD PRODUCTS
Exhibition on children, youth and school engagement and learning about future food systems at Frederiksberg City Hall.
Eight schools from Denmark and Västra Ramlösa school from Helsingborg in Sweden displayed their work and interacted with each other. An absolutely fantastic melting pot that gives hope for the future. There were examples of schools that independently developed advanced digital tools to weight the nutritional content and climate footprint of different foods, Aquaponic farms in the school environment that are used in the educational work but at the same time produce food for the students. At Västra Ramlösa school, they have hydroponic cultivation in the school cafeteria, where they harvest their own herbs and salad. They have also installed a digital tool that measures food waste, where students can give feedback on what food is served. In the same platform, you can also follow and measure e.g. carbon dioxide content in the classroom, heat, etc. to get an idea of how to improve the environment and climate footprint.


Denmark’s Minister of Food, Jakob Jensen, visited the event and spoke about why schools, research and young people are important in the fight against food waste. He then visited all the schools’ stations and was very impressed by what he saw.
As an extra spice during the day, the various schools offered taste samples of climate-smart and nutritious examples of school food that they prepared themselves.


The exhibition ended with a panel debate on the importance of school meals for the development of our food systems. It is clear that it is relevant to make comparisons between Denmark and Sweden, which have completely different systems, and to learn from each other. This should be developed further, perhaps the next project is a deep dive and collaboration in the Nordic school catering systems – together is the way forward and I believe that the children should be allowed to sit in the driver’s seat.