SLU Youth Institute raises awareness about food security among young people

In total, more than 15 classes with nearly 400 high school students around Umeå, Uppsala and Skåne have accomplished the challenge of writing a Global Challenge thesis within the SLU Youth Institute programme, a collaboration between SLU Global and World Food Prize Foundation. It is a task that requires great commitment from both teachers and students. The teachers have been able to design the task based on any school subject of their choice but with one thing in common – the connection to Agenda 2030 and global food security.

SLU Youth Institute started in 2020 with a focus on schools around Skåne and Uppsala. Before the academic year 2022, the programme was expanded to also include Umeå, something that has been very successful. In Umeå, classes from central Umeå, Strömsund and Lycksele have participated. The hope is to expand the programme with additional schools.

"Strengthening awareness of both SLU as a university and the challenges of global food security here in Umeå is very important. During this year, we have started up with a few schools in Umeå and the surrounding area, but the hope is to reach out to more classes and students. Thanks to a great collaboration with Uppsala and Alnarp, we already have a well-prepared programme and a good foundation to build on," says Elisabeth Nyström, coordinator in Umeå.

As a conclusion to the project, those high school students who wanted to submit their theses for assessment could do so. Some of them were then selected to participate in round-table discussions on campus with experts in food safety, both from SLU and from various organisations in Sweden. From each round table, one student was nominated to travel to USA and participate in Global Youth Institute, an international round table with experts and participants from other Youth Institutes around the world organised by World Food Prize Foundation.

During the round table discussions at SLU, the students also had the opportunity to take part in what is going on at the university, where this year, among other things, they were able to visit Ultuna Permaculture, the Food Lab in Alnarp and Umeå Plant Science Center.

"That so many teachers and students are interested in taking on the challenge and writing a Global Challenge is fantastic! The interest in sustainable development in society is important and to be able to connect it to the UN's sustainability goal number 2, No hunger, feels extremely important. Everyone should have the right to sufficient and nutritious food, something that unfortunately is not the case with the challenges we face today and ahead. The fact that we can contribute to spreading knowledge and increasing interest in these issues among our young people feels very good," says Anna-Klara, SLU Youth Institute project manager.