Work on the choice of the LOGO of the project.

In December, 2021 project partners were involved into activities of choosing the LOGO of  the project. The students participated with a great excitement and the Logo created by Portuquese team won the competition.

Šis paveikslėlis neturi alt atributo; jo failo pavadinimas yra pr-logo.gif

Since now we will use it as our project logo. The explanation of the logo is:

he graphics aim to be cheerful and lively, with colours not very lush but diverse, where green is “king”!

The concept is of simple understanding, in which the planet serves as a plate/bowl that supports foods that, in turn, are represented in an exuberant way, to enhance their origin.

Lettering is divided into 2 typologies, “FromtheEarth”, in a more handwritten version and using the colour green, to associate with the nature of the planet; the other, “TO THE PLATE”, more rigorous and in capital, to oppose to the previous, given the geometric shape of the “plate” designated in the sentence. However, on the whole, the two text segments link in one context through, above all, colour.

FROM PORTUGAL…

We are back from the last meeting of the Erasmus+ project “From Earth to Plate” in Santa Maria da Feira, Portugal. 5 participating countries met again in Portugal, Santa Maria da Feira secondary school.

Since the beginning of the project, we have been researching eating habits, comparing them with our partners in Budapest, looking for supermarkets where we can buy food without plastic packaging, finding out where our food comes from and telling each other about it in Bergamo; We have been exploring the topic of biodiversity, creating questions for the BIOPOLY game on biodiversity, sustainability, Mediterranean diet, food safety, ecological footprint, asking our friends and acquaintances how they understand the ‘Slow Food’ movement and looking for producers who are rediscovering old breeds and bringing them back to life.

In Santa Maria da Feira, during the last week of April, the Dos Loios Hotel hosted the participants and the town’s secondary school was buzzing with visitors. All the participants from the 6 countries brought their work to present to the partners. The works were numerous and all showed that European countries are discovering old plant varieties and successfully cultivating them: Lithuanians interviewed the producers of   apple cheese (in Lithuania there are a great variety of apples and old breeds are successfully cultivated).  The Germans like to generalize, so they talked in their slides about old varieties, their importance and the work of breeding; the Italians have a scientist, Galdini, who was happy to talk about old breeds of mountain goats and bearded maize; the Portuguese about colored beans; the French filmed a scientist outlining his philosophy and his concern about the loss of plant diversity. The project participants discussed the SLOW FOOD movement.

The last event of the project was a presentation of BIOPOLIS and a game. We were divided into 6 teams, each group with a participant from each country. All partners took the game attributes back to their schools and the game will be played by other members of the communities and together they will learn English and sustainability.

The Portuguese coordinator, Isabel Pays, made a great effort to showcase the school, the city of Santa Maria da Feira and the beauty of Porto. We were impressed by the beauty of Portuguese cities, the warmth and energy of the people and the delicious food.

We had fun eating, dancing and singing at the last party at the school where the table was set and the food was prepared by the students of the Portuguese school’s culinary sector. The beauty and taste of the sweets was amazing, they just melted in your mouth.

We said goodbye to our partners and hosts, we know that this was the last activity of the project, but we know that the ideas of the project will stay in our hearts for a long time.

In Bergamo, the cheese capital of Italy, with the Erasmus project “From Land to Plate”

Students and teachers from European schools in Portugal (Santa Maria de Feira), Hungary (Budapest), Lithuania (Panevėžys) and Germany (Varendorf) gathered at the Maironi da Ponte Gymnasium in the suburb of Bergamo to carry out an Erasmus project. The partners from Bordeaux (France) could not come because of the strict Covid rules in France, so they participated remotely.

Symbolically, we started our activities at the Lenna farm near the resort of Sant Pelegrino. The farm is located at the foot of the mountains and produces wonderful Italian cheeses. As our project is called, we were involved in the cheese-making process, from milking the goats and cows (not everybody tried), heating the milk, adding the enzyme and curdling the milk, to putting the cheeses in the moulds. What struck the participants was the simple Italian approach to the process, the handmade work and the endless love they have for their nature and animals. We heard from the owner of the farm that the quality of the cheese depends on the quality of each herb the cows and goats eat. This is a responsible attitude towards the environment. Several people admitted that the aged cheeses we were treated to were very tasty.

Federica Carpani, the Erasmus project coordinator at the Italian Gymnasium, and the students and teachers involved in the project welcomed the guests on the morning of 22 February (Tuesday). They were delighted to see the project’s large logo, flags and warm words of welcome. We were greeted by the Mayor of Bergamo and the Headmistress of the Gymnasium.

Representatives from each school had prepared 3 tasks-presentations which we presented to each other. In the assembly hall, we looked at where food products come from in European countries, what is on the labels, and thought about the false, supposedly organic labels on products, encouraging us to keep our common sense and be critical. The Germans and Italians have been very critical of product labels. The second exercise was about shopping without plastic packaging – we learned that there are shops in all the cities of the participating countries where you can buy food and hygiene products without packaging. The fight against plastic is gaining momentum and the beginning is made. We believe that this environmentally friendly movement will only grow and reach more people. The presentations of the participants in the project covered relevant food safety topics: animal diseases and their threat to humans, genetically modified organisms and products, packaged products, products in cans and their impact on human health, pesticides and antibiotics in food. The partners were divided on who would prepare which topic.

After Tuesday’s theoretical part, the next day (Wednesday) we walked through the beautiful Old Town of Upper Bergamo (guided by Italian students) to the Bergamo Botanical Garden, where the staff of the Botanical Garden organised hands-on activities on food safety. We collected and discussed the various herbs in the garden’s grounds and learnt how important it is for nature to have a wide variety of plants rather than mono-cultures. Later, we engaged in a question-and-answer game to find out whether our activities and attitudes are environmentally friendly. At the same time, we improved our English language skills.

The lecture on “Hunger in the world” was held remotely, and here we saw the advantages of our partners from Bordeaux, who could communicate with the lecturer from their computers, whereas the other participants, who were sitting in the room, did not have this possibility, as they had to go to the computer and ask or answer a question. The lecture material again and again instilled the idea that everyone is responsible for their own actions and that every step towards sustainability is important.

The meeting of the project partners was closed with a lively performance by the folklore group “Arlecchino Bergamasco”, a group of elderly people from Bergamo. The harlequin is a symbolic figure of Bergamo. We admired the bright folk costumes of the folklorists and a never-before-seen music box. On each project trip, we learn a lot about the country, the people and their mother tongue.

Lithuanian project coordinator Meilute Balbieriute

The first Erasmus + project: FROM ERTH TO PLATE partners’ meeting

Participants of 6 European countries (Germany, Italy, France, Hungary, Lithuania and Portugal) came to Fasori Evangelic school to work on the results of questionnaire on eating and consumption habits, to introduce food shopping possibilities in their countries and present seasonal offer of vegetables and fruits.

The students listened to the lecture about food labeling and tried to determine which product of two of the same kind is healthier according to label information. Further on the project participants worked on the food and environmental pyramids deciding which products have better nutritional value and which have stronger environmental impact. A lot of terms and knowledge was not familiar to majority of students – so they had to learn some facts and English words like un and saturated fatty acids, sources of proteins and carbohydrates, names of many different products.

The Hungarian coordinator Lilla Toth prepared workshops very well considering about many topics of the project. One of the workshops which requested meticulous preparation was devoted food tasting and choosing the most attractive food between industry produced and homemade. The results showed that our youth gives priority to industrial food and only homemade bread was identified as better tasting than industrial. Here is the point where our project has to work on education and acknowledging about benefits to health of local homemade food. We started with it in Budapest with information and practical workshops about differences between imported industrial packaged products and local, provided without plastic package fresh food. We will continue with the training and knowledge providing in our activities locally and during the next international meetings.

Erasmus+ project partners had possibility to visit small goats and cows farm outside of Budapest where the hosts introduced about their work and cheese production. We tasted wonderful cheese, drank cacao with goat milk and we hope having brought our students further towards exercising on understanding and recognizing benefits of local products. Cheese disappeared quickly from the tables.

Closing party was held with presenting different traditional food by each project country with Hungarian dances which involved all students and teachers to move and have some healthy physical activity.

Next project international activity will be organized in Bergamo, Italy in March.

Lithuanian project coordinator Meilute Balbieriute