Food for Thought


An interactive learning approach to tropical eco-systems

Food for Thought (F4T) is a collaborative project between the Leicester Masaya Link Group and the University of Leicester Botanic Garden which has been running since 2005. The project was funded for 3 years by the Department for International Development and is now available for schools to buy in. It can be delivered in a number of different ways.

  • Food for Thought at the Garden
    • All day session at the University of Leicester Botanic Garden

  • Food for Thought Experience
    • half day session delivered in schools

  • Food for Thought in Schools
    • Half term unit of work (6 sessions)

  • Resources and down-loadable materials:


  • Support for Teachers


Food for Thought at the Garden

F4T offers an interactive approach to global citizenship for primary and secondary schools. It brings Leicester’s town-twinning link with Masaya in Nicaragua (Central America) to life in a day of activities at the University of Leicester Botanic Garden, in order to make connections between the various stages of food and commodity production and development issues.

Within the Botanic Garden, the students encounter specific examples and a wide range of plants growing in a tropical environment where the pupils begin their ‘immersion’ into Central America as soon as they arrive. The process of finding out about Nicaragua is done through photographs, case studies and artefacts and is closely linked with the activities they are undertaking ‘in role’.

The pupils are involved in hands-on activities designed to explore how tropical plants are grown and used for food, drink, medicine and crafts in Nicaragua. The pupils take on different roles such as planting and harvesting maize, cooking maize ‘tortillas’, mixing tropical fruit drinks, preparing herbal remedies and making traditional crafts.

Buying and selling their wares in a recreation of a bustling Nicaraguan market, pupils explore the principles of trade in a local economy and they begin to understand the different factors involved in the process of getting produce from the farmer’s field to the market place.

Follow-up sessions in schools focus on international trade and introduce the concept of fair trade, highlighting the challenges and prospects experienced by small-scale producers in developing countries

The project is designed to be adapted to different Key Stages, using a cross-phase model, working with one secondary school/college and up to 5 feeder primary schools, in both the city and the county. At primary level the project is aimed at YRs 5 and 6 and involves up to 330 pupils. The secondary input varies each year, both in the year groups, the number of students involved and in the way the project is targeted.

Food for Thought 2005 and 2006

In 2005 we worked with Gifted and Talented YR 7 students at Moat Community College who worked as mentors, alongside the year 5 & 6 pupils from the primary schools they themselves had attended.Click here for photos and a review.

A group of year 10 students studying Spanish at Judgemeadow Community College were involved in 2006, using the internet and email exchanges to do preliminary research on Masaya before helping to facilitate the hands-on activities on the day. The project built on the links it had already established with Nicaragua following a residency by Nicaraguan artists in 2001 and resonated with the college’s International Status enabling staff and students to make clear connections with the key concepts which underpin the global dimension (e.g. interdependence, citizenship, sustainable development, social justice).Click here for photos and a review.

In 2007 we worked with years 9, 10 and 11 at Countesthorpe Community College and the focus was on providing an experience to complement careers education. Students will be become ‘roving reporters for a day’, documenting the lives and trades of people working in Nicaragua. They will be part of a team of journalists, with responsibility for reporting on daily events in order to produce a publication to document the project.

This will involve research, interviewing the primary school pupils as they undertake their respective tasks, taking photographs, writing articles and compiling a magazine for distribution to all the primary schools involved. Students will liaise with the local newspaper offices as well as having an opportunity to work alongside the Fairtrade Education Officer to distribute the publication during Fairtrade Fortnight in March 2007. The project is aimed at students who may be considering careers in journalism, teaching or ethical careers such as working for an aid or development agency or a fair trade organisation. Click here for photos and a review.

In the first 3 years, F4T reached 18 schools, 1100 students and over 50 teachers and teaching assistants.

List of participating schools involved 2005, 2006, 2007:

  • Highfields Primary Scbool, Leicester
  • Sparkenhoe Primary School, Leicester
  • Shenton Primary School, Leicester
  • Uplands Junior School, Leicester
  • Charnwood Primary School, Leicester
  • Moat Community College, Leicester
  • Medway Community Primary School, Leicester
  • Whitehall Primary School, Leicester
  • Linden Primary School, Leicester
  • Humberstone Junior School, Leicester
  • Judgemeadow Community College, Leicester
  • Arnesby Primary School, Leicestershire
  • Greenfield Primary School, Leicestershire
  • Kilby Primary School, Leicestershire
  • Stokes Primary School, Leicestershire
  • Birkett House Special Schoo, Leicestershire
  • Thistly Meadow Primary School, Leicestershire
  • Countesthorpe Community College, Leicestershire

Food for Thought Experience - half day session delivered in schools

A condensed version of F4T can be presented in schools as a half day activity for up to 60 children. The F4T Experience is delivered as a carousel of 5 or more interrelated activities which can be adapted to suit specific topics e.g. healthy eating, water, plants and their uses.

All materials, artefacts and displays are provided, set up and cleared away by the F4T team (usually 2 people). The school is required to provide the use of the hall and ensure that a minimum of 4 adults support the pupils (usually 2 teachers and 2 teaching assistants).

The experience costs £250 for 60 children and takes approximately 1.5 hours to deliver with 30 minutes either side to set up and clear away.

Click here for more information and examples of carousel activities (Coming Soon).

Food for Thought in Schools - Half term unit of work (6 sessions)

In 2007, two year 5 teachers at Whitehall Primary School in Leicester (who participated in the 2nd year of the project) developed F4T into a 6 week creativity programme of topic-based work to explore contrasting world localities. The project was used to integrate and embed the global dimension into different subjects and KS2 curriculum areas including geography, DT, Art, ICT, PSHE.

In the first week, the children had a half day introduction to Masaya during which they met two visitors from Nicaragua who talked to them about their daily lives in rural Masaya. In week 2, the children learnt about Food and Farming in Masaya, planting, growing, milling maize and cooking tortillas as well as making popcorn and tropical fruit juices . The third week was dedicated to producing arts and crafts, including wooden toy birds, clay piggy banks, cotton tortilla bags and a papier mache ‘piñata’.

A visit to the Botanic Garden to experience the ‘Whole World Cake’ activity happened in week 4. In the fifth session, the children went to the City Learning Centre to produce a newspaper article about fair trade and design and print a T shirt with Food for Thought logos to wear in the final assembly. The final week focused on a Nicaraguan market stall simulation to buy and sell the goods made during the project. Posters were also made to advertise the assembly.

The children also wrote a song and compiled the assembly and all their work was presented to the whole school, parents and invited guests (including the Food for Thought team from the LMLG, the Botanic Garden and the Fair Trade facilitator as well as a representative from the CLC).

The whole project was documented by the children who did their own follow-up research on Nicaragua to produce individual illustrated booklets about their learning experience in Food for Thought.

Click here for topic web
Click here for examples of children’s booklets

Resources and down-loadable materials:

A range of supporting materials has been produced to enable teachers to deliver Food for Thought in school. These resources can be adapted to suit different Key Stages and can also be used to develop similar materials for other country profiles.

Activity ideas
Background information sheets
Introduction to Nicaragua

Support for Teachers

A teacher training session focusing on the Food for Thought programme can be presented on request but the LMLG regularly delivers teacher training sessions through the East Midlands Network for Global Perspectives in Schools and the Regional Professional Development Network.

It is also possible to arrange training or support for individual teachers or groups of teachers which can be tailor-made to suit specific requirements.

Contact us to find out more