One important part of establishing a sustainable food culture in schools is to break down the perceived barriers between the students and the school restaurant. Two schools in the municipality of Malmö in Sweden wanted to encourage their students to be more engaged in, and to create an interest for, sustainable school food.
The goal was to include students in the school meal experience, through a hands-on and fun activity. Inspired by the TV-program MasterChef, the schools collaborated and created a competition for the students, which they named SchoolChef4Change.
How was SchoolChef4Change implemented?
The competition was made up of semifinals and a final where the two schools met and which took place in the home economics halls of the schools. A total of 40 students participated, where they competed in teams of 4 people. The criteria were to cook a full plant-based, sustainable school meal in 90 minutes, while also minimizing the food waste from the preparation. Each team presented a dish to be judged by a jury consisting of school personnel, principle and school chefs from nearby schools. The jury judged the meals in terms of taste, presentation and food waste. For the final, a live-streaming event was arranged so that all their peers could watch and cheer on their classmates.
Prior to the competition
The students had time to prepare by looking at recipes and available ingredients. The schools also arranged a workshop with information and to familiarize the pupils with the topic of food waste but also about how to compose a sustainable food dish.
the price?
The winning dish was a vegetable stew served with rice. It will be served in all schools in Malmö municipality on one specific day, which the students were very happy about. The students who participated in the final got an invitation to the chef school of Malmö municipality where they were awarded a diploma for their participation.
What did the students and participants think about SchoolChef4Change?
This competition contributed to a positive school culture by creating engagement, through education and by being a fun activity, centered around student involvement and sustainable school meals. It was a good opportunity for the students to discuss sustainable food with both teachers and other staff. And even those who did not compete themselves were engaged through talking to their classmates and by cheering on the participants in the livestream of the final.
Reflecting on the process of this initiative the staff would have liked more time to plan the competition. It was more time-consuming than they initially had thought, and they would like to involve both the teachers and students’ even more next time.
After the contest the staff at the schools noticed that the students were more eager to discuss both learnings and preferences about sustainable food. Some students said that they were inspired to educate themselves to chefs or bakers, and the staff got many questions about when the next competition will be held. Altogether this is seen as a successful ending of this year’s SchoolChef4Change in Malmö. Which SF4C city will be next?
