Food and regions

Educating taste is key

Educating taste is a key component of the Super School Canteen research/action programme. Support for food education is provided by Eveil'O'Goût, an association based in Dijon that works with the research team and the city of Dijon to design and implement educational initiatives in local schools. The association also provides food education training to municipal employees with a twofold objective: help children discover the different sensory qualities of food, with a focus on vegetables and legumes, and increase their knowledge about foods they like least. School canteen and supervision staff, who are in direct contact with children at lunchtime, play an important and transparent role in cultivating sociability and the enjoyment of eating a meal together.

The genetic resource centre for grain legumes of the Agroecology Joint Research Unit was commissioned to raise awareness among the general public about legumes. Scientists plan to highlight the richness of these foods by installing a visitor path in the Arquebuse botanical gardens, a partner in the project. The display will include demonstration plant beds and a video on their importance in the human diet.  “We also intend to offer ‘citizen’ legume collections that can be distributed in the form of seed packets for community gardens around the city,” explains Judith Burstin, Deputy Director of the Unit and Scientific Co-Coordinator of Action 1 of the Dijon Alimentation Durable 2030 initiative of the Territoire d’innovation (TI) programme. Infrastructure for the initiative is under construction, including a cold room for seed conservation and a tunnel greenhouse to ensure the renewal of seed batches in secure conditions, explains the researcher. The long-term objective is to perpetuate this collection, which is unique in the world and contains several thousand accessions, including nearly 5,000 heritage items.

Help them understand where the food on their plate comes from and how it is prepared and cooked

This notion underpins Dijon Alimentation Durable 2030, an initiative of the Territoire d’innovation programme, for which, similarly to the Super School Programme, environmental impact assessments and the introduction of vegetarian menus is closely linked to product sourcing. This is a priority for the city of Dijon, which is committed to offering locally sourced, good quality meat, fruit, vegetables and legumes. For example, a farming cooperative was created to supply school canteens with beef produced in the region. A similar cooperative created for vegetable sourcing includes a local lentil producer, and a vegetable processing site is in the works to supply canteens. “This is an aspect we want to highlight in the food education initiative for schoolchildren, to help them understand where the food on their plate comes from and how it is prepared and cooked. We want to give them the knowledge they may lack,” says Sophie Nicklaus.