Food sovereignty and school

workshops on unconventional food plants (UFP) and medicinal plants in a public elementary school

Abstract

This paper presents and discusses the results of a university extension project carried out with middle school students in a public school, EMEF José Paim de Oliveira, located in a rural area of the municipality of Santa Maria (RS). The main objective of the action was to problematize, in both conceptual and ludic ways, the relationships that students establish with food, thus seeking to map the origin of the food they consume, also teaching them to identify plants and recognize the importance of producing and consuming fresh products, with emphasis on Unconventional Food Plants (UFP) and medicinal plants. This article presents a summary of the activities carried out, as well as the discussions and results obtained, highlighting the production of two booklets: one on UFPs and the other on medicinal plants. The activities carried out in the project allow us to reflect on the relationship between food and education, or rather, on the need for food education, since, ultimately, the results of the action underlined the need to de-automatize the relationship that is established with food, proposing reflections on eating habits and on the origins of what is consumed: in short, food sovereignty.