talian reference for ready-to-eat salads, fresh soups and fruit and vegetable extracts, OrtoRomi looks to the future and focuses on younger generations, more inclined to embrace change and adopt virtuous behaviors for man and for the planet. And it does so by relaunching the educational project “OrtoRomi per la scuola”, an initiative designed to raise awareness among young students on the issues of healthy eating, conscious consumption and sustainability, understood in environmental, economic and social terms, in line with the European Agenda 2020-2030. The project restarts in the new digital version in a particularly important year, the International Year of Fruit and Vegetables proclaimed by FAO, an initiative launched to raise public awareness on the health benefits of consuming fruit and vegetables, and again, for promoting a healthy diet and lifestyle, reducing food waste, improving food production by making it more sustainable, through innovation and technology.

The “OrtoRomi per la scuola” project was born in 2019 with the proposal of visits and educational workshops at the packaging site in Borgoricco (Padua) and the member farms in Boara Polesine (Rovigo) and Marcon (Venice). The project was aimed at primary schools in the Venetian provinces of Padua, Treviso, Rovigo and Venice.

The pandemic that began in 2020 has not stopped the initiative that has quickly landed on other channels, transforming itself from a project into a presence into a digital project.

An activity that this year continues on the online teaching platform with rich proposals of free digital and paper content, aimed at students of classes III, IV and V of primary schools throughout Italy. The mascots, Tina and Dino, two curious and passionate children will accompany their peers in this exciting educational, playful and fun journey.

The workshops, to be followed in class, are divided into 2 macro categories:

1.Sustainability

With this path, students will learn the meaning of the word “sustainability” and its environmental, social and economic declinations, as well as the resulting advantages. Teachers can choose between 3 workshops:

More salad for everyone: discovering the sustainable choices made in the greenhouses of the OrtoRomi Agricultural Cooperative and in the salad washing plant.
Plastic, knowing it and using it better: how to best differentiate and recycle plastic, a material that, if used well, is sustainable.
Cooperating is better than arguing: discovering the advantages of working together, with common ends, for a greater well-being of the community and a sustainable life.

2.Food education

With this path, students will learn what it means to be aware of the food you choose, the social value of sharing food, as well as the importance of knowing and appreciating seasonality and variety of fruit and vegetables as a wealth. Teachers can choose between 2 workshops:

Reading labels: how to read food labels and understand what they say about that specific food.
Health and fun are on the plate: discovering the nutritional principles, in which foods they are found and how a balanced dish is composed.

On the platform, the laboratories are supported by interactive games, videos for virtual visits and other informative video content such as printable pdf cards, divided into insights for teachers with games and cards for students. To participate in the workshops it is necessary that the teachers register the interested classes for free and that the school is equipped with a computer connected to a video projector or IWB.

With this project, the OrtoRomi Agricultural Cooperative renews its commitment to operate responsibly, a primary value on which it bases its identity. An environmental and social responsibility, which concretely starts from acting according to sustainable agricultural and production practices and is completed with the dissemination of a food culture, aimed at the well-being of mankind and the planet.

Info and registration: www.ortoromiperlascuola.it