The purpose of the ‘Trip to the Store’ concept is to support learning outside the
classroom in line with the national curriculum, and encourage schools to
discover new learning environments outside the school grounds as well.
“A trip to a grocery store gives school children a chance to learn consumer skills
in practice, which is not possible in a classroom setting. The trip will also
feature some teamwork exercises and offer the children a chance to participate
in designing school activities. The trip is best suited for 3rd–4th graders,”
says Anni-Mari Syväniemi, Executive Director of Finfood.
The ‘Trip to the Store’ is based on A Group’s Food Manifesto, which was announced
in summer 2017 and aims build a bright future for Finnish food. One of its
themes is a promise to promote healthy eating among children. This inspired the
idea of schoolchildren’s trips to grocery stores.
“It’s important to teach children and young people about food retail. For example,
knowing how food gets to the stores and what happens to products that are not
bought helps understand how food is produced and its lifecycle generally. It
also makes us appreciate food more. Visiting a grocery store and interviewing
its staff encourage kids to learn consumer skills and to see the store as a
place of work as well, says Communication Manager Outi Hohti from S Group.
Pilot trips were organised 2018 in a couple of cooperatives. The feedback was so
positive tat the project is now being extended to cover the whole of Finland.
“Making these trips happen is easy with the freely available ready-made material
prepared by teachers. The ‘Trip to the Store’ concept supports a variety of
skills and fits many of the objectives set for different school subjects, such
as environmental studies, language studies and mathematics”, says class teacher
Liisa Lavonen from the Arabia
Comprehensive School.
“The enthusiasm of the kids is evident in the questions they ask – from each other
and the store’s employees. After the trip the students are always eager to know
when we’ll go again and what kind of research we can do next time,” says
Lavonen.
More information:
Anni-Mari Syväniemi, Executive Director, Finfood,
anni-mari.syvaniemi(at)ruokatieto.fi, tel. +358 50 5118 909
Outi Hohti, Communication Manager, SOK, outi.hohti(at)sok.fi, tel. +358 50 3883
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