London Climate Action Week: ‘Living life on the veg: how our food system affects the climate’
London Climate Action Week
London Climate Action Week (LCAW) ran from the 1st – 8th July bringing together a number of climate change experts from across various sectors to hold a range of different events across London. Over the course of the week, audiences came together to raise awareness, identify solutions to climate change and highlight actions that need to be taken.
Aims of the Event
Our LCAW event at St John’s Church of England Primary School on 5th July 2019 for a class of 30 Year Two pupils (6 – 7 year olds) was titled “Living life on the veg: how our food system affects the climate”.
The aim of the event was to engage with primary school age children about how diets, health and the environment are interrelated, and to initiate an informative dialogue about their access to environmentally sustainable food. We wanted to educate them on climate change in a fun and engaging way, and hoped to enable the students – or at least begin to equip them – to play an empowered and active role in shaping an environmentally sustainable food system.
The Climate Change Song – Dr Pauline Scheelbeek
The event featured a short talk from LSHTM’s Dr Pauline Scheelbeek on the role that food plays in climate change, and how we can eat in a way that supports the environment. The class were just about familiar with climate change and were keen to build on their existing knowledge. They responded enthusiastically to learning about the different stages of the food system that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. And it was no surprise that Pauline’s Sustainable Foods Song (sung to the tune of Incy Wincy Spider) was a big hit.
Cook School
We were delighted to be joined by Amanda Grant and Kristian Dean from Cook School, who followed Pauline’s talk with a practical session on basic cooking skills and showed the class how to prepare a simple, healthy and environmentally-friendly recipe. The children were happy to get stuck in to grating their vegetables to create a healthy twist on vegetable samosas. They enjoyed the fact that they had the opportunity to make the whole recipe from start to finish, and were proud of the final product, which was delicious. The students were excited to be able to take home the recipe sheets and the products of their cooking to share what they had produced and learnt with their families.
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