The “On the Food Route – Career Day” event was held on September 24th, organized by CEIDSS in partnership with EIT Food, an organization co-funded by the European Union that supports projects in the area of food systems, and with the municipality of Cascais.
The activity, which took place at Quinta do Pisão in Cascais, was attended by 150 school children and their families and aimed to raise awareness about the professions related to healthy and sustainable food, such as farmer, beekeeper, nutritionist and chef.
Participants were involved in recreational and educational activities, favouring family contact with nature, where they had the opportunity to explore issues related to the principles of healthy eating from a “Farm to Fork” perspective.
At the farmer’s station, the children were invited to learn about the day-to-day workings of the profession and had the opportunity to plant a lettuce, with the help of the farm’s professionals and their families, in order to go through all the necessary steps to get the plant in a pot, ready to start the growing process.
The beekeeper discussed the importance of bees for the food system and showed some of the products that result from bee activity, such as honeycombs. He also showed some of the safety equipment needed for his work.
At the nutritionist’s station, the children learnt the main messages that the Food Wheel conveys and played a game that allowed them to make associations between some of the foods they usually take in their lunchboxes and the recommended frequency with which they should consume them.
To conclude the event, the chefs from FoodLab Cascais discussed what a typical day in their work is like and, together with the children, transformed some vegetables and herbs collected from the farm into a small snack, which the families were invited to taste.