The food system is at the centre of a number of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal’s. However, there are several challenges facing the system that threaten the integrity and security of the food supply including a growing population, competition for resources, complex food supply chains and climate change.

Educating future talent in local food systems and sustainability is critical to build a culture of social, environmental and economic responsibility and to support the adoption of sound practices.

Currently however, hospitality and catering vocational education and training (VET) across Europe does not significantly address in its curriculum the various aspects of the local food system and sustainable food practices. Learners therefore are at a disadvantage as they do not have the modern knowledge and skills to understand the economic, environmental and social benefits of the local and the wider European food industry affecting their future careers. Today, menu trends and cuisine styles are dominated by local produce and environmental sustainability such as artisan, organic and vegan and vocational education and training must adapt their provision to align with this.

Over the past three years, we’ve been working with four European partners on ‘Food for Thought’ – an Erasmus funded project to equip future employees in the industry with a sound knowledge of local food systems and sustainability. The emphasis is on teaching sustainable food production and cuisine practices in an interactive manner to vocational education learners (15-18 years old) to meet contemporary requirements in the catering and hospitality industry.

Following the development of six bespoke learning units to support hospitality and catering and food and nutrition course delivery in phase one of the project, new immersive and innovative technology-led teaching tools have since been developed as in the second phase of the project.

Access the online toolkit

The open access online toolkit has been piloted with 120 learners and staff across partner countries. The toolkit provides learning units which can be embedded into your current courses, with a variety of interactive PowerPoints, videos, case studies and assessment methods to enhance the learning experience, through the completion of units on:

• Introduction to sustainable management in catering operations
• Food supply chain and sustainability
• Food waste
• Trends and lifestyles
• Sustainable sourcing and procurement for catering operations
• Food destinations

Project partners

As part of the ‘Food for Thought’ project, People 1st International partnered with South West College in Northern Ireland and Alexandre Dumas College in France who both have strong hospitality & catering training departments. St. Angela’s College in Sligo complemented this expertise as a provider of University-level education and research in food sciences as well as an ambassador of sustainable development culinary education.