EXPERIENCES

It is an educational and transformative initiative promoted by our first cooking officer, José Luis Cabrero. It was born from the introduction of ecological and local food to the canteen menu, and goes beyond that in order to train people committed to our environment, with a critical spirit and aware of the repercussions of our consumer habits on the environment.

Project origins

At the end of the academic year 2012 - 2013 we began to gather people from the school community of the CEIP "Asunción Pañart": mothers, producers, teachers and cook, and we began to exchange concerns about the school canteen.

We wanted our canteen to be another educational space, where the students, in addition to receiving quality food, learn the consequences that our actions have on the environment.

For this reason, we decided to take the necessary steps to transform the school canteen into an ecological school canteen.

What do we mean by "ecological"?

In our group we understand the word ecological, not only as a way to cultivate the land and raise animals without synthetic products, but also:

- That the workers have fair working conditions.
- To reduce the impact of our ecological footprint, mainly by reducing the contamination caused by the transport of food, and by reducing its packaging to the minimum possible, as well as the recycling of the remains.
- Sustainability of the land where the crops are grown, maintaining biodiversity and conservation of the different species that inhabit it. - All of these points should lead to an increase in the general health of consumers, as well as the environment in which we live.

This concept includes a change of habits to consume seasonal products.

The objectives of the project:

- Introduce organic and local food until 100% supply is achieved.
- To carry out parallel educational activities, aimed at both schoolchildren and families, with the final objective of creating a complete programme covering children and the 3 primary cycles, so that when schoolchildren finish their training in the centre, they will have learned the consequences of a form of consumption such as the consumption of ecological and local products.
- Maintain contact with other centres where they are carrying out the same project in order to learn from each other and to be able to share educational materials and ideas.
- Creating an organic school garden, where schoolchildren can grow their own vegetables, and learn the differences between conventional and organic farming.