With their project ‘Veldboon’, first-year students of the Food, Life & Innovation program of Terra MBO won the Impact Prize for Green Education 2020 on Thursday the 4th of March. They have won a cash prize of 2500 euros. The Impact Prize is for innovative projects, research and startups that in one way or another have a positive impact on food, climate and/ or quality of life.
Project Veldboon
The Terra MBO students were nominated for the Veldboon project. The veldboon (field bean) is an old crop that is currently very popular with growers in the province of Groningen. This protein-rich product is not widely used for human consumption, although this could be possible. The students from Terra got to work with it and made a field bean paste, a field base (pizza base) and a tasty dip sauce. The amount of money won will be used to market the products made.
Live stream broadcast
The winners were announced on Thursday 4 March during the live stream broadcast Jongeren aan Zet Live! Guests who sat at the table included Frans Timmermans (Vice-President for the European Green Deal in the European Commission) and outgoing Minister Carola Schouten (LNV/ Ministry of agriculture, nature and fishing). They talked to representatives from the green sector, education and a number of young people who follow a training in green. Students Geertje Kanter from Terra Groningen and Gerjan Zwaan from Terra Emmen were present.
Link: GroenPact winners 2020
About the training
The Food, Life & Innovation course is based on the ‘From soil to mouth’ idea. Information about healthy and sustainable food, origin, food chains and trends are the most important pillars. To teach students skills and to gain experience, they mainly work in practice. The content of the Food, Life & Innovation course is built around practical issues, which is unique in education.
It is not the first time that the program has won awards. The course, which started in 2019, won a first prize in the same year during the MBO Challenge against Food Waste. In 2020 they won the public award of Good Practices Sustainable MBO 2020 with the Food Youth Council. This indicates that this program responds well to issues from contemporary society.