MOS-action sheet: Soup with balls

The pupils explore the meaning of healthy, local and seasonal products. They search for information on the Internet and look in their neighbourhood for companies, shops, farmers and growers, who produce such goods.

The questions below may be exciting to explore.

Healthy ( whether organic or not )

• What does healthy food/eating mean (to you)?
• Who likes to eat sweets? Salty? Fat? Can you eat too much of it? Who has ever felt ill from this?
• What is your favourite food? Do you like soup (too)?
• Fresh soup or from a can? Why?
• What kind of soup do you like? With or without meatballs?
• Where do the meatballs come from?
• Does everyone (in the classroom, on the planet...) eat meat?
• Do you know anyone who does not eat meat (and fish)? What does he or she eat?
• Do you (sometimes) eat something without meat (e.g. sandwiches)?
• Is meat always necessary?

Local (grown close to home)

• What vegetables do you like?
• Do these vegetables grow in our country or do they come from elsewhere?
• How do these vegetables grow (in the ground, on a log...)?
• Who has a vegetable garden at home? What vegetables do you grow?
• If you buy vegetables, where do you get them from (the garden, in a store, at the farmer’s)?
• Do you buy them fresh or not?
• Can you give examples of vegetables that are not sold fresh?  How are they sold and where can you buy them?

Seasonal (vegetables of the season)

• What is your favourite vegetable? Does it grow in Belgium and if so, in which season?
• Do vegetables grow all year round (in Belgium)?
• Which vegetables grow when?
• What if your favourite vegetable does not grow in the garden right NOW?

Pupils (and teacher(s)) (of all classes) are given the challenge to make soup. This must meet the following conditions:

• Made with healthy products
• Made with local products
• Made with seasonal products

For those who fancy an extra challenge:

• Use fair ingredients, which are socially acceptable
• Use ecologically responsible ingredients, which have the least possible impact on our earth

• Use ingredients with a good price for the farmer and the consumer, i.e. ingredients that are economically acceptable
• Communicate the results

Look for 'experts' who can help you meet the challenge:

• An (organic) (vegetable) farmer
• The chef from a nearby restaurant
• The garden of mum/dad/grandpa/…
• The market vendor at the weekly market
• The labels on the vegetables telling where they come from, if they are organic…
• Grandma's recipes of how soup used to be made
• Mum/dad/grandad coming to help make the soup
• A paper processing company, a waste sorting company…
• ...

• Have a class competition (and why not between different schools?) for the soup with the least food kilometres*. The class/school of the soup with the least food kilometres will be declared the most sustainable soup makers.
• Organise a (blind) trial moment at which 'experts' (parents, chefs, teachers...) judge the taste of the different soups and try to guess the ingredients. Invite the press!
• Create a recipe book about sustainable soups with the pupils. You can give it away as a prize, sell it to support a (local) project...
• Place the competition on the school website, in the newspaper, on social media... and explain why you are organising it.

Food miles indicate the distance food travels and calculate its CO₂-emissions. The greater the distance, the higher the CO₂-emissions. Please note! Tomatoes that are grown here in winter in a heated greenhouse can produce higher CO₂-emissions than tomatoes grown further afield. Seasonal vegetables are therefore a better alternative.

• When washing the vegetables and cleaning up afterwards, use water sparingly. Save energy and put the lid on your cooking pot when making soup.
• Establish your own vegetable garden at school and reduce the food miles.

• groentekalender.be: discover which vegetables you can enjoy each month
• gezondheid.be: eating according to the seasons offers many advantages
• donderdagveggiedag.be: learn how to eat healthy and tasty vegetarian food once a week
• okokorecepten.nl: soup recipes 
• Bereken jouw voedselafdruk  calculate your ecological food footprint
• labelinfo.be: your guide through the forest of sustainability labels
• wijzijnkruit.be: your partner in world citizenship education
• voedselverlies.be
• mijntuin.org: the social network for and by gardening enthusiasts
• oxfamwereldwinkels.be
• oogvoorlekkers.be
• https://www.goodplanet.be/nl/ons-aanbod/
• https://welzijnszorg.be/acties/soep-op-de-stoep
• https://www.mosvlaanderen.be/duurzame-voeding