The Incredible Edibles Project

In 2008, Agri Aware developed and delivered the 'Meet the Spuds' campaign during the year of the potato. Following the success of this project, Incredible Edibles was developed. The Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Health and Children, through the Healthy Ireland framework, have joined Agri Aware's incredible Edibles patrons along with the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, Bord Bia and the horticulture industry to support this important healthy eating educational programme for primary level students.

Now in its 13th year, Incredible Edibles is a healthy eating and horticultural growing initiative, developed for primary school students and their teachers across Ireland.

The aim of the project is:

To educate students about growing fruit and vegetables
To increase awareness of food origin and quality.
To highlight the important role that fresh, Irish produce plays in a healthy balanced diet
To communicate the health benefits of consuming at least five to seven portions of fruit and vegetables every day, to help prevent obesity.

By empowering students with knowledge of where their food comes from, the initiative allows students to make healthy choices into the future and encourage a heightened knowledge of local Irish produce. Therefore, this project is designed to enhance generational change in the fight against obesity, ensuring participating students become informed consumers when making purchasing decisions as young adults, and indeed as parents going forward.

Tasks range from food origin and identifying Irish produce, to growing, cooking and eating healthy Irish fruit and vegetables, the project aims to cover all grounds of learning where your food comes from and the importance of the food pyramid for a healthy balanced diet.

Participating schools are sent FREE grow packs that contain everything they need to start their own school garden, including seeds to grow strawberries, potatoes, lettuce, spinach, chives, carrots and turnips, as well as wildflowers and other materials! Downloadable curriculum-linked activity sheets, grow charts, and recipes are also provided to schools in efforts to expand students’ knowledge on the subject matter.

This is a fun and educational curriculum linked horticulture project, that gets pupils thinking and learning all about how your food goes from Field to Fork, in an interactive way.

In September 2011, Agri Aware was invited to participate in an Obesity Governance Stakeholder conference in Brussels. Here, Agri Aware advised other countries across Europe about the Incredible Edibles project and how it was delivered. Those in attendance were interested in the Incredible Edibles project as a potential strategy to address childhood obesity issues in Europe.

Our Sponsors

Without sponsorship, Incredible Edibles would not be viable.

Incredible Edibles has won awards!

EU CAP 50 Communication Awards
Out of a total number of 118 applications for the CAP Communication Awards 2012 Agri Aware’s submission for Incredible Edibles was short-listed among the best-practice projects in communicating on agriculture and rural development policy. As a shortlisted the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission has included the Incredible Edibles initiative in a database of communication best-practice examples which is currently being developed.

Family Farm, developed by Agri Aware and Dublin Zoo, went on to win gold in the 'Communication to the Public' category. You can read more about our EU win on the Agri Aware website.

'Targeted Communications' and 'The Bull' Awards
In 2010, Agri Aware, with the Incredible Edibles project, won the Targeted Communications Category at the Guild of Agricultural Journalists of Ireland. The awards are presented every two years for work of outstanding merit.There are six different categories with an overall winner being chosen from the six category winners. The Incredible Edibles project went on to win the overall prize, known as ‘The Bull Award’.