Whole-school engagement in BeanMeals
Collaboration with teachers, school cooks, lunchtime supervisors and caterers
Overview
This part of the BeanMeals project assesses the impact of a range of school-based educational activities (including playing Beantopia, a co-designed game ) on children's consumption and willingness to try bean-based meals in six schools in Leicestershire (Ingram and Didier 2023).
People involved
The BeanMeals project team includes researchers from different disciplines with expertise in food systems (agroeconomics, systemic innovation, food policy, legume breeding, public health, and behaviour change), as well as project partners Food for Life, local city and county councils, and a game designer. The project team worked closely with headteachers, teachers, school children, cooks and caterers, and lunchtime supervisors to offer bean-based meals on the school food menu, bean-related educational activities (sensory activities, cooking activities, growing activities, and playing the Beantopia board game), and farm visits.
Key project activities
Staff training
- For teachers on incorporating beans and food system concepts into curricular activities in history, geography, and sustainability.
- For lunchtime supervisors included strategies to encourage children to try new foods offered on the school food menu and solutions to challenges experienced during school mealtimes.
- For cooks focused on cooking bean-based meals and how to embed them into school menus.
Activities for schoolchildren
These included visits to Warwick Crop Centre to learn more about how beans are grown, Food for Life classroom activities (such as sensory education with beans and sessions on the food system), Food for Life 'Cook and Eat' home-based activities with families, and co-design and play with a bean-themed game, Beantopia.
Co-production principles
Relationships
The research team highlighted the importance of building on pre-existing connections with schools developed by project partners, Food for Life.
Beneficial outcomes of BeanMeals interactions between schools and research team were noted. For example, interactions with universities were thought to be valued by schools to raise aspirations and create awareness of different job roles among school children, e.g., in the horticultural sector through farm visits, providing a variety of new experiences for school children.
"I think there was a lot of more positive offshoots happening from that school interaction than could ever be planned for." (Project team, BeanMeals)
Knowledge
The project team provided training for the cooks but noted the importance of ensuring the sessions were participant-led, with interest in cooks' views and expertise on cooking bean-based meals in a school environment. The project team recognised the school cooks’ extensive knowledge of school food, the catering system and school children’s food preferences.
"We tried to give them confidence in what they were doing as well… it’s valuable. They are the absolute experts in this." (Project team, BeanMeals)
The project team also noted the value of listening to the concerns of school cooks and lunchtime supervisors and being an advocate for them, in building trust and relationships with this group.
Reflection and reflexivity
The project team highlighted an increased awareness of the complexity of issues and the diverse range of partners that need to be engaged for changes to be implemented in schools. Support from headteachers, teachers, cooks and caterers, lunchtime supervisors, school children and their families were considered key, with adaptation of approaches to meet the specific needs and culture of each school essential.
Projects like this can’t really be a one size fits all approach… it does highlight the importance of working reciprocally between what it is you're trying to achieve and from their point of view, how we can adapt… to make it actually happen.
Researcher, BeanMeals
Related references
Ingram, J., and L. Didier (2023), 'Children are game to try healthy foods', Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford. https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/news/children-are-game-try-healthy-foods.
