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The Wageningen Youth Institute inspires young and old at the Youth World Food Day

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November 2, 2020

At the initiative of the UN, the role of food in society was discussed worldwide on 16 October. The fully online youth version of the World Food Day was organized that day from the World Food Center in Ede. The Wageningen Youth Institute was of course present to present its participation in the Food Chain Challenge. WUR student Evi Vet, UN Youth Representative for Biodiversity and Food, was also virtually present.

Collaboration

The Food Chain Challenge is a collaboration between four Youth Institutes of the World Food Prize Foundation and brought high school students from the United States, Sweden and the Netherlands together to work on the following question: how can we globally work together on more locally grown and consumed food? Nine international teams engaged in talks with local entrepreneurs on September 29 to work on a real problem of them.

Presentation, Quiz and Interview

Mirjam Troost and Dennis Vlegels of the Wageningen Youth Institute gave a presentation about this project from the studio of the World Food Center. In addition, Yasmin Dijksterhuis gave viewers a quiz about Food Chains. Team captain Dennis also interviewed a participant from his group, Ella Wold, to talk about their experiences. “I think younger students are a lot more free in their creativity, because they're not exposed to that many opinions; they form their own opinion” -Dennis

I think younger students are a lot more free in their creativity, because they’re not exposed to that many opinions; they form their own opinion
Dennis Vlegels (Team Captain)

Announcing the winner

The best ideas of the teams were presented and shared during the Youth World Food Day and the winners were announced in the afternoon. Nina Hoogeveen of Avans Hogeschool, who developed an idea for restaurants to offer cooking with a choice of ingredients in restaurants instead of predetermined dishes. Restaurants will use what nature and soil can give us and it also prevents food waste. Lucia Mauriello and Kaleigh Krause of the New Jersey Youth Institute also scored highly. They came up with new concepts for the Community Kitchen Program of Tacombi, a company with the best tacos in New York.

Together with Rabobank, the New Jersey Youth Institute, and the company Tacombi, the Wageningen Youth Institute will work with the winners to bring their idea from concept to reality!