In 2008, Agri Aware developed and delivered the 'Meet the Spuds' campaign during the year of the potato. Following the success of this project, the Incredible Edibles project was developed.
The Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Health and Children, through the Healthy Ireland framework, joined Agri Aware's Incredible Edibles patrons along with the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, Bord Bia and the horticulture industry to support this important healthy eating educational programme for primary level students.
Soon to be in its 14th year, Incredible Edibles is now a well established healthy eating and horticultural growing programme, long established within schools nationwide and impacting over 3.5 million Irish primary pupils. The aim of the project is getting schools growing and encouraging healthy eating within schools and at home.
This aim is achieved by its objectives:
- To educate students about growing fruit and vegetables
- To increase awareness of food origin and quality.
- To highlight the important role that fresh, Irish produce plays in a healthy balanced diet
- To communicate the health benefits of consuming at least five to seven portions of fruit and vegetables every day, to help prevent obesity.
By empowering students with knowledge of where their food comes from, the initiative allows students to make healthy choices into the future and encourages a heightened knowledge of local Irish produce. Therefore, this project is designed to enhance generational change in the fight against obesity, ensuring participating students become informed consumers when making purchasing decisions as young adults, and indeed as parents going forward.
Tasks range from food origin and identifying Irish produce, to growing, cooking and eating healthy Irish fruit and vegetables, the project aims to cover all grounds of learning where your food comes from and the importance of the food pyramid for a healthy balanced diet.
Participating schools are sent FREE grow packs that contain everything they need to start their own school garden, including seeds to grow strawberries, potatoes, lettuce, spinach, chives, carrots and turnips, as well as wildflowers and other materials!
Downloadable curriculum-linked activity sheets, grow charts, and recipes are also provided to schools in efforts to expand students' knowledge on the subject matter.
This is a fun and educational curriculum linked horticulture project, that gets pupils thinking and learning all about how your food goes from Field to Fork, in an interactive way.
In September 2011, Agri Aware was invited to participate in an Obesity Governance Stakeholder conference in Brussels. Here, Agri Aware advised other countries across Europe about the Incredible Edibles project and how it was delivered.
Those in attendance were interested in the Incredible Edibles project as a potential strategy to address childhood obesity issues in Europe.
Meet the Incredible Edibles Team
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