Map Your Meal
Overall Objective
The project expects to achieve attitudinal change in the way people, and especially young people, consume food, the choices they make and the type of products they support. By understanding more about the interdependencies that exist in our globalised food system and by understanding more about the consequences of the production or supply on local communities, the environment, and the economic dependence of certain communities, these (especially young) people are expected to change their attitude towards at least some of these global challenges and thus change their attitude when purchasing food. The Map Your Meal smartphone application will not ‘prescribe’ a specific attitude; rather it will encourage critical thinking and will encourage users to make their own choices, based on the available information about food items. The same is expected for participants of the community or youth workshops, as well as the workshops for sustainable living projects. Through an active and experiential learning process, participants will gain greater understanding of how issues of human rights, food security, environmental sustainability, social justice etc. are connected to our food products as well as to the local communities that are involved into the production or supply chain along the way. Participants will be encouraged to become active themselves, be this through different choices when purchasing food products, or through other participatory activities within their local community. Also, they will be encouraged to advocate for a change in production or supply conditions by addressing respective companies/ suppliers directly.
What we do
Through its many activity components, the project will contribute considerably towards increasing appreciation of global issues and challenges. Specifically, the smartphone application, which will be available for free download, will significantly increase users’ understanding of global interdependencies by tracing where our food comes from, how it was made, and what impact the production and supply has on local societies, the environment and the economy. This will directly enhance the understanding of the global issues and challenges that are connected to these production and supply chains. Furthermore, the Map Your Meal Toolkit, the workshops and public events will further increase understanding among those participating, including young people, those active in sustainable living initiatives on a local level, as well as the borader public. Understanding global interdependencies, the global issues and challenges that are part of todays globalised world, as well as understanding their history and their interrelations are key to acquiring global learning skills and to be able to take informed decisions that affect not only one’s very own life, but that will also have a positive impact on the lives of others, in the local as well as global community. Many times, global issues such as social justice, poverty, food security, sustainability, equity, human rights and power relations appear very disconnected from our every day life. This projects aims to explore these themes and their interconnectedness through analysing and offering a visualization of the global food system. Everyone can relate to food and we all purchase food items without thinking about their ‘links’, ‘connections’ and ‘stories’. Map Your Meal will use innovative tools to introduce a wide range of citizens (not engaged before) to global issues by inviting them to learn more about their food.
External Links
- To be announced soon
