This year’s United Nations #InternationalYouthDay (August 12th, 2021) focuses on youth leadership for transforming food systems.
Nourishn celebrates six initiatives achieving remarkable impact on food systems through youth leadership. Each of these integrate socio-economic challenges or food/cooking competitions into more traditional school garden, meal, or classroom programs. By connecting the youth food experience across socio-economic topics, such as financial sustainability and connection to environment (biodiversity/climate/water) and nutritional impact on a student’s own academic and sports performance, these initiatives are sparking a sense of opportunity and agency that youths carry back into their homes and communities actively, transformationally.
- The Uganda Rural Development and Training Programme (URDT)
- The Vegetable Academy in Germany and Austria
- STAR School in Arizona USA
- Native American Community Academy (NACA) in New Mexico USA
- Gardens for Health in Rwanda
- Nourishing Schools in India
We’d encourage the U.N. and others to aggressively support this pattern and these food system innovators.