Kids to Kids - Let's prepare a healthy traditional meal!

In September, 2018, the European Commission - DG SANTE identified the project as the Best of 10 Practices in Europe in the field of healthy and a sustainable lifestyle in relation to food...

...also with recognition for marketing work, which has great importance in disseminating information, visibility and loyalty of the entire population.

EU Comission

Exploring the culinary (nutritional) cultural heritage is one of the essential activities of preserving the identity of a nation or population, and represent the basis for regulating a healthy diet today. The dishes and food preparation processes of our ancestors are a part of a cultural and social happenings that describes the way of life in a geographically diversity of the Country or State.
We present you a new age education project that has been going on for nine years in the whole country of Slovenia, and whose main actors are Elementary School pupils. Their task is to explore the forgotten culinary heritage of their region with cultural background and to adapt the dishes to today’s body needs. They are motivated to use healthy, seasonal ingredients from the surroundings (short chains) and to learn about the reasons of using that in the kitchen (what to eat when and why), to cook at home and minimize food waste. The main project mission is to encouraging children to a healthy and sustainable - responsible way of life.

Project is supported by Ministry of Health and is a part of the National program “Dober tek Slovenija”.

At the National level, the project is important for the main areas:

• Health
• Local food
• Education
• Employment
• Tourism
• Social ties

In addition, some important facts to note:

• reducing food waste
• the importance of climate change
• strengthening overall responsibility to the environment and ourselves
• changing lifestyles

Best Practice award ceremony

• Get the basic ingredients closer to children as a necessary part of the meal.
• Make healthy meals "cute" and tasty, thus encouraging the changing of the child's taste.
• Encourage children to consume large quantities of vegetables and fruits¸ to eat food full of vitamins and minerals to ensure the long-term health.
• On the basis of tradition, the adaptation of foods to today's body needs: less fat, meat, replace with more vegetables, less sugar and salt.
• Use locally from the surrounding area – without “traveled many kilometers”.
• Use seasonally food and to know what, when and why to eat.
• Knowledge: how to use these things in practice, bring closer to children on an attractive way.
• Use attractive psychological methods for motivating children.
• To raise the skills of preparing food at home.
• To promote joy to work: to achieve better self-image, higher success, better competence of children.
• With inter-peer stimulus, impact on own and all other generations.
• Set the children as an example and the best media for disseminating information and knowledges.
• Create consumers who will require locally produced healthy foods; revive respect and awareness of food produced at home.
• Minimize food waste.

They are also at the forefront social competences as an essential component of the prosperity of coexistence between diverse groups. Most modern approaches of motivation, where the methodology of transferring knowledge and skills is placed to the forefront: children to children, in a coherent, acceptable way, achieves long-term acceptance by youth. A formal, non-formal learning approach motivates both, children and teachers, who perceive the same kind of advantages and integrate them into the regular learning process. This leads to better learning achievement in general, satisfaction and genuine cooperation between teachers and children, which further enhances the joy of learning and work, self-initiative and friendly level of cooperation in heterogeneous groups, mutual assistance and organizational skills. The content that explores the cultural culinary heritage is the basis for accepting, understanding the cultural background of other groups, strengthening the favorable social environment, cooperation of the local, regional surroundings... It encourages the cooperation of local communities, the support of local communities and the recognition of the regions with its organizations. Updated learning approaches based on modern motivational elements update the entire learning process and give motivation to educate youth outside the school walls. Thus, it gives greater competences to teachers and leads to a permanent desire to upgrade learning approaches according to modern trends.

References

As the beginners of the revival of traditional dishes on Slovenian plates - in restaurants, homes, schools and other institutions, we proudly presented the Slovenian culinary heritage:

2015: in cooperation with the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Washington, at a Symposium of Culinary Diplomacy (Make food not war) with the presence of the former Director of the White House Protocol, Patricia Marshall.

2015: in cooperation with the Permanent Representation of Slovenia to the EU, in order to celebrate the Slovenian National Day, we organized a reception at the Brussels Town Hall for more than 800 diplomats; and for the same reason, in cooperation with the Slovenian Embassy in London, a reception at the Europe House in London.

2016: in cooperation with the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Washington, at the European Union Representation in Washington, with the intention of Slovenia's initiative to become the World Bee Day on May 20, we have prepared traditional honey breakfasts for invited diplomats.

2017: in collaboration with the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Washington, DCPC and DC Central Kitchen, we organized that on 113 Public Schools in Washington (50,000 children) ate Slovene traditional dishes. May 10, the Mayors of Washington DC declared as Slovenian Food Day. 

This year also the honorary patron of the project was Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr. Miro Cerar.

 Slovenia.Si

2017: in cooperation with the Slovenian Embassy in Paris, we presented the project as the most innovative culinary product from Slovenia at the event »Planète de goût«

The book Slovenian Grandma’s Kitchen is based on the 8-years rising project of researching culinary/cultural heritage of Slovenia with Primary School pupils.

They stepped where ethnologists cannot: into the kitchens of their grandmothers. 

The book is a collection of the best "food representatives" of all of 24 Slovenian gastronomic regions, with mostly forgotten dishes.

The idea for the book appeared in year 2017, when in cooperation with DC Public School, DC Central Kitchen and with help of Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Washington, the Slovenian meals were placed in all 113 Public Schools in Washington DC for 50.000 pupils. May 10, 2017 declared the Mayor of Washington as a Slovenian Food Day.