Sustainability in all its meanings

Associazione Kora — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 16:25:12 +0000

We sent Kӓtlin, Tommaso and Alice to Poland for the Erasmus+ training course ‘Sustainable Communities for (you)th’ in October 2022.

This is their testimony!

Cześć! On the 26th October Kӓtlin, Tommaso and me came back from Poland, where we participated in a Training Course on the topic of Sustainable communities, as representatives of Assciazione Kora.

“Sustainable Communities for (you) th” is a project born from the awareness that the climate and ecological crisis will require a radical change in our habits and our consumption patterns. To do this, it is not enough to rely on the solutions that science is proposing and on the laws that are gradually being implemented, but it is also important to adopt a holistic approach, which involves everyone and everyone in the process of change. Sustainable communities aim to achieve sustainability in its many aspects, from food production, to decision-making, to the financing of their activities.

The project took place in Zywa Ziemia, a farm far from civilization and immersed in the forest, rich in edible mushrooms, which we collected several times and delivered to the cook, and a short distance from a pond, where we were able to enjoy beautiful sunsets.

In this project we have seen and analyzed four different “pillars”: personal sustainability, collective sustainability, financial sustainability and finally environmental sustainability. For each of the four parts we had different activities and moments of debate.

The topics we have dealt with in more depth are the search for our values and strengths, coaching as a method of personal development, the various ways to obtain resources and funding for one’s projects, circular economy, the search for our own reason for living through the Japanese method of Ikigai, deep listening, non-violent communication and decision-making in communities, exploring in particular the concept of sociocracy.

We then dedicated the last two days to more practical activities, including collecting wood and berries, planting garlic in the farm’s vegetable garden, beekeeping, collecting waste left in the forest and preparing food on open fire.

The more “official” training activities were accompanied by many conversations and exchanges with the owner of the farm that hosted us, Katarzyna, and the other members of the training team. The experience was then certainly enriched by getting to know the other participants, that came all the way from Greece, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Hungary and Poland.

In general, it was a fantastic opportunity for personal enrichment, for creating new friendships and for contact with nature.

We thank Simone and Kora for the opportunity and see you next time!

Alice, Tommaso and Kӓtlin

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“BACK AND FORTH”: FOOD, TRADITIONS AND SUSTAINABILITY

Associazione Kora — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 16:20:45 +0000

“Back and Forth” is a project funded by the European Commission through the Erasmus+ programme.

The project involved 42 young people from 6 different countries in a multicultural experience. The project involved several non-formal education activities, such as cooking workshops, debates and intercultural learning activities. That is where the project acts: create a safe environment where people with different backgrounds, cultures and points of view can share experiences, learn and appreciate the process.

All the material in this article was produced by participants during the project.

Objectives of the project are:

Provide participants with knowledge about food choices and their impact on environment
Share and increase awareness about national/regional traditions of participating countries
Investigate the concept of cultural identity and its connection to food traditions
Promote the introduction of environmental sustainability in traditional recipes and meals
Provide practical cooking skills to participants
Raise awareness on differences and similarities of participating countries’ cultures and traditions
Provide young Europeans tools to reduce their impact on the environment through food choices

In few words

What is the relationship between traditional food (and culture at large) and environmental sustainability? As traditional meals often have ingredients that have a high impact on the environment (like meat and dairy products), should we give up our traditions or there is a possibility to keep together culture and sustainability? Is traditional cuisine discriminatory, as number of vegetarian and vegan people are rising?

As sustainable food habits and inclusion are core values at Kora, we decided to investigate more on these questions with a questionnaire. The questionnaire triggered the interest of many young people and was filled out by 92 people from different European countries. We noticed that a first reaction for many when choosing a more sustainable diet is looking elsewhere, at food from other countries which are traditionally vegan or vegetarian, while neglecting adaptation of their own culinary culture. Thanks to this investigation we realised which are the core issues regarding the relationship between environmental sustainability and culture/traditions. The project involved several non-formal education activities, such as cooking workshops, debates and intercultural learning activities.

The cookbook

One of the major outcomes of the project is the production of a cookbook where to find the recipes participants cooked during the project. In the cookbook you can find both traditional recipes and sustainable ones, as one of the main goal it was to renovate traditional recipes to lower their impact on the environment.

We are proud to present here the final version of the cookbook created by participants!

DOWNLOAD IT HERE

Feel free to use it, share it, and it!

The post “BACK AND FORTH”: FOOD, TRADITIONS AND SUSTAINABILITY appeared first on MyNgo.

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Sustainability in all its meanings

“BACK AND FORTH”: FOOD, TRADITIONS AND SUSTAINABILITY

In few words

The cookbook