Castagnola - Six meetings, one common thread: food as experience, storytelling and discovery. As part of the 2024-25 school year, two fifth-grade classes at Cassarate Elementary School took part in the workshop "Food and Art: a journey through taste, color and culture," sponsored by IBSA Foundation in collaboration with DECS. The course, made up of creative moments, observation and dialogue, ended with the final exhibition show open to parents as well.
Six meetings to learn with all the senses
The workshop consisted of six stages: four held at school, two at the Foundation's headquarters, Casa Carlo Cattaneo. The goal was simple but ambitious: to give children an experience capable of transforming learning into something concrete and memorable.
No frontal lessons: theory was intertwined with practice, and scientific content took shape through art, manual skills and storytelling.
Food was transformed into a thread to talk about health, territory, environment and family traditions, offering young participants a broad and knowledgeable look at nutrition and its implications.
The food pyramid
The heart of the workshop was an educational journey structured around the food pyramid. This is a model that represents a balanced diet, where at the base are the foods to be consumed most frequently (such as fruits, vegetables). Moving up toward the tip, however, are those to be eaten in moderation (red meat, sweets, fat). This model was used as a narrative and scientific tool to guide the exploration of food. Each meeting delved into one level of the pyramid, combining a theoretical part - centered on knowledge and reflection - with a practical part - devoted to artistic expression and sharing experiences in the classroom.
The journey started from the base, with fruits and vegetables emphasized for their colors, seasonality and nutritional benefits.
It then moved on to farinaceous foods - bread, pasta, rice, cereals - also observed under a microscope to discover their structure and variety.
The third level dealt with animal and plant proteins: an opportunity to discuss hunting, fishing, animal husbandry, biodiversity and global health, relating nutrition, traditions and sustainability.
To close, plant and animal fats were discussed, analyzed to understand the differences between saturated, unsaturated and omega-3 fats, and reflect on quantity, quality and nutritional functions.
All meetings were held with easy-to-find materials accessible to every school. The artistic part allowed the exploration of expressiveness and interpretation through different techniques: pastel on black paper, charcoal, monotype printing, and more. The visual activity accompanied the theoretical one, reinforcing attention, stimulating creativity and leaving lasting traces in the memory.
A sustainable educational project
The workshop was not only an opportunity for children to learn in an active and engaging way, but also an opportunity for shared work with the teachers, in the name of a more open, experimental and participatory didactics.
Guiding and accompanying the teachers along the way were Valérie Morelli and Nicolò Osterwalder, discipline experts in compulsory education, with the aim of interweaving content, methods and reflections that can enrich daily classroom practice.
The project fits fully into the Ticino Compulsory School curriculum, particularly in the fields of General Education and therefore Education for Sustainable Development, helping to strengthen the dialogue between school and territory.
Compared to the previous edition, this year's workshop was structured in a more continuous and articulated way, with an even more active involvement of boys and girls.
This growth reflects IBSA Foundation's commitment to building educational pathways capable of leaving a mark, making science accessible, engaging and within everyone's reach.
The project ended on June 16 with the school display of all the work, but the echo of questions, smiles and discoveries will continue to resonate in classrooms and homes.
Talking about food, after all, if you do it with care and awareness, also means talking about identity, tradition, respect and the future.
