Here Come the Food Heroes!

Grade 2 students from the Windhoek International School received a visit from the United Nations Information Centre Team to support their unit of learning on making healthy choices. The Centre presented Peter Rabbit's Food Hero campaign, centred around Peter, a popular children’s storybook and animation to help bring the concept of becoming a “Food Hero” to life.

With the UN General Assembly hosting the UN Food Systems Summit on 24 September, setting the stage for global food systems transformation, this learning engagement connected the children’s learning to international and locally relevant themes. 

The fun presentation centred around taking action to become Food Heroes by: 

1. Eating more fruit and vegetables 
2. Reducing food waste 
3. Buying locally produced food 
4. Using reusable bags when shopping as a sustainable practice 
5. Planting their own garden 

These actions are important choices to make for our health and the health of the planet. The children were called upon to become food heroes and inspire others to join the cause.  

The children discussed “ugly fruit and vegetables,” their consumption patterns as well as food waste. Many families are already food heroes with small veggie gardens and active efforts to reduce food waste. We unpacked examples of food waste relating to their lunch boxes and dinner plates and the children shared ideas on how to cut wastage. 

The Peter Rabbit campaign runs until World Food Day on 16 October which will call for more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems and actions to contribute to the transformation needed to ensure food for all. In becoming Food Heroes, these learners serve as an example to both the young and old to actively make better choices in what we eat every day.