Rather than bite into a ham or peanut butter sandwich, Vancouver students could soon be tucking into a lunch they had a hand in growing or preparing.
UBC researcher Alejandro Rojas is launching The Think&EatGreen@School Project which aims to connect Vancouver K–12 students to food and sustainability issues while helping schools lighten their ecological footprint and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The Think&EatGreen@School Project is a five-year interdisciplinary study that explores innovative ways to teach students about the impact of individual food choices on the planet’s limited land and water resources.
“We’re looking at ways in which the school system can contribute to reconnecting people, food and the environment,” says Rojas. “In an age where most kids think of meal preparation as nuking a pizza pop in the microwave, we want to get them thinking of food as a powerful social and ecological connector and as a means to protect rather than deplete the environment.”
LFS professors Art Bomke, Gwen Chapman, Andrew Riseman and Brent Skura, and UBC Farm Project Manager Mark Bomford are co-investigators on the study, along with Assoc. Prof. Jolie Mayer-Smith, Dept. of Curriculum and Pedagogy in the Faculty of Education and Wendy Mendes from the School for Community and Regional Planning.
As principal investigator, Rojas recently received a $1 million grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, specifically a Strategic Research Grant from the Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) for Canadian Environmental Issues program.
UBC’s partners include the Vancouver School Board, Vancouver Coastal Health, Vancouver Food Policy Council and numerous non-profit organizations working on food and environmental advocacy.
The study will investigate: the nutritional, ecological, social and economic practices of school food programs; the impact of on-site food production; the influence of curriculum and school physical design on student learning about the relationships between food security, sustainability and climate change; and the impact of creating a sustainable school food system on the ecological and carbon footprint of a school.
“One of our exciting ideas is to expose students to meal planning and preparations with local, seasonal ingredients that have a low-carbon footprint,” says Rojas. “We’re also looking at planting school food gardens and orchards so students can get some hands-on learning about the growing and harvesting of food.”
The research team anticipates working closely with about 12 elementary and secondary schools each year over five years. Helping them ensure smooth logistics are Project Coordinator Will Valley, Project Manager Elena Orrego and Project Community Liaison Brent Mansfield.
The Think&EatGreen@School Project will also fund graduate students and bring entire classes of undergrads to contribute and gain experiential teaching and learning skills. School-specific projects could range from preparing the soil for a new “backyard” garden to improving the cafeteria menu.
“If we succeed, at the end of the five years, the Vancouver School Board could be one of the most advanced metropolitan school districts in North America in regards to food garden practice and supportive policies and innovative pedagogy,” says Rojas.
As well, the initiative tackles institutional models of change for decreasing carbon emissions given that recent provincial legislation in B.C. requires all public institutions to be carbon neutral by 2012.
“This is a very exciting opportunity for students, teachers, parents and administrators to help develop models of best practice and policies that other school districts can use,” says Kevin Millsip, Sustainability Coordinator, Vancouver School Board.
The Vancouver School District currently serves 56,000 students in the K– 12 levels, more than 3,000 adult education students and about 40,000 continuing education students in
108 schools.
“What we hope students will come away with is this simple fact – stewarding the planet involves small and large steps that we must take together,” says Millsip.
