Food and Taste Education One of Slow Food's major objectives The sensory abilities of people today have significantly deteriorated. Our senses of touch, taste and smell have become progressively worse. The pressures of insufficient time and the speed of our lives are depriving us of faculties that can give us a deeper, more varied and more authentic knowledge of the world around us. For this reason a vital element of the Slow Food philosophy is to retrain the senses and sharpen perception. Young people, in particular, risk losing the very sense of what it means to eat, as well as their links to the local region and a relationship to the seasons.

These considerations resulted in the Taste Education project being set up, with the aim of educating young people to develop their sensory abilities, and helping them to understand the importance of food as an integral part of a society's culture.

Slow Food's taste education program does not limit itself to a simple classification of nutritional qualities but emphasizes that food also means pleasure, culture and conviviality. It conveys values and attitudes, enhances relationships and catalyzes the emotions. Slow Food makes its experience available to teachers by organizing courses, talks, conferences and taste workshops in schools.

In Italy one of the first initiatives was the Taste Week program launched in 1993. This involved a seven day period where students were assisted by experts and artisans while they where imparted a mix of sensory experience, knowledge and tought about food.

Initiatives were then developed with a focus on teachers. After Slow Food Italy gained recognition from the Italian Ministry of Education as a training body in the area of food and sensory education from the 1998/1999 school year, Slow Food's work in this field was put on a more permanent and organized footing, with training and refresher courses for teachers in schools at all levels.

In some Italian regions, including Piedmont, Tuscany, Lazio, Liguria, Campania and Friuli Venezia Giulia, Slow Food's project enjoyed great support from local institutions committed to promoting their region's traditional food (inter-regional co-financed program "Communication and Food Education"). About 9000 school teachers have attended courses organized by Slow Food since 1998, and have in turn involved thousands of students and parents in taste education activities.

Educational resources have also been produced, such as the manual Dire, fare, gustare, (Say, Do, Taste) and the CD ROM Viaggio nella magia del gusto (Journey into the magic of taste).

Still in the field of school education, the efforts of Slow Food USA in 2001 led to the first national project promoting School Gardens. Some American members created vegetable gardens near school buildings where children could grow their own food, develop skills and stimulate their senses. The results encouraged Slow Food USA to set up an Educational Committee to launch the Garden Project on a national scale. In just two years there were 30 school gardens distributed around the USA. The success of this initiative, based on the hard work and perseverance of Alice Waters, Matt Jones, Todd Wickstrom and Laurence Mate among others, meant that in 2003 the International Slow Food Congress resolved that every Convivium in the world should work towards setting up a School Gardens project, giving a further concrete boost to Slow Food's educational mission.

During the Slow Food Italia national congress in Sanremo in 2006 school gardens where renamed Orto in condotta (Convivium gardens) and the aim of creating 100 such gardens in Italy was set.

Convivum gardens will follow the three cardinal principles of the association's philosophy: good, clean and fair. Good because the sensory analysis workshops train children and parents to recognize food based on its sensory qualities, learning to demand and monitor quality in school canteens. Clean because the youths learn to use organic and biodynamic production methods, to research and safeguard the seeds of local varieties, to consider as vital the reduction of food miles by privileging local foods. Fair by endorsing the transmission of knowledge from generation to generation, giving value to the social role of the elderly and of volunteers and encouraging collaboration between diverse realities, also through partnerships with developing countries. Today the number of Convivium gardens is increasing rapidly all over the world: 78 are active in Italy, 42 in the rest of the world.

The formation courses which train instructors who in turn hold lessons for teachers in Italian schools where the project is active are a key element of the Convivium garden project. Subjects cover a wide range, from horticulture to food education to didactic planning. The instructors are chosen among teachers, educators and Convivium leaders who are particularly active in food and taste education, experts in communication and valorisation of typical products, agronomists and dieticians.

Slow Food has also designed a project specifically for students at Hotel Management Schools. Starting in 2002, initially in Piedmont, then Campania and Friuli Venezia Giulia, initiatives were developed to encourage knowledge, sourcing and use of some of the main traditional products in the kitchen. This is a practical way of giving future professionals in the food and wine industry the necessary tools and methods for their work. They learn about the historic roots of a product in the context of a local area, the steps in its production and commercialization, and its gastronomic application. The number of students taking part in this project over the last four years is almost 1500.

Educational aims have always formed an important part of events organized by Slow Food, allowing people to discover the wealth of quality food and agricultural produce in Italy and the world. In addition to areas used for markets and conferences, great care is always exercised in creating specific trails for young adults and children.

One of Slow Food's ambitious projects is tackling the issue of hospital food, which today is far from the habits and tastes of the ill and infirm. In a place where time is marked by diagnosis and therapies it is important to reaffirm the dignity and space of mealtimes, often consumed in unwelcoming spaces.

The basic principles for the diet of hospital patients are outlined in the document Carta dei diritti del piacere, della convivialità e della qualità dell'alimentazione del malato (paper on the right to pleasure, conviviality and food quality for sick people,) formulated by the partners of the project "Il gusto per la Salute" (taste for health). The driving forces behind this project are the Piedmont Region Agriculture Council, the sanitary directorship and the dietary and oncological surgery departments of the San Giovanni Antica Sede hospital in Turin and Slow Food. At this historical hospital a long term program for awareness on food's role is being carried out with the aim of transforming mealtimes into a time for cure, rehabilitation, enrichment and entertainment.

At the Salone del Gusto 2006 Italian Health Minister Livia Tirco announced the intention of setting up a team involving the Health Ministry and Slow Food which will work to formulate a plan of action for changes in the hospital catering sector.

The Slow Food association is also active in penitentiaries, with the intention of getting inmates to acquire working skills which they can use for their future readjustment to society as well as for the present, occupying their time with formative activities. One example is the Lorusso e Cotungno (Le Vallette) prison in Turin where a number of inmates have become an active part of international coffee production, from managing the torrefaction cycle to knowledge of the product's history, from production to transformation, to tasting the coffee. The beans, from the Slow Food Guatemalan Hueuetenango Presidium, are toasted inside the prison then distributed by the Pausa Caffè cooperative.

As far as the general public is concerned, Taste Workshops are definitely a winning formula. They are a registered trademark inaugurated at the Vinitaly exhibition in Verona (Italy) in 1994, and since then have become a characteristic feature of Slow Food events both large and small. Their enormous success shows that they meet a deep need: people want a direct approach, to sample food in a guided tasting and to rediscover sensory awareness. They want to relate to food in a playful and pleasurable way rather than regard it as a necessity or nutritional requirement. They want to satisfy their curiosity when encountering rare and precious food products, and not only gain intellectual gratification when they learn about a product's distinctive qualities. Experts conducting the usually hour-long workshops describe techniques of tasting, how a product relates to others in its class and how it is produced, often supported by contributions from the producer and a specialist in the area.

On the occasion of large events such as the Salone del Gusto, Cheese and Slow Fish, the Taste Workshops are all translated into or from English by simultaneous translation, given the large number of people attending and the presence of many non-Italian producers.

Slow Food supports an innovative, original approach to food and taste education based on reawakening and training the senses, learning food production techniques and tasting as an educational experience.

These principles underlie the Master of Food project. It is intended for the wide range of people who want an alternative to conventional educational courses or short duration food events. It does not aim to train food professionals so much as to help consumers become more aware, satisfying their interest in food and encouraging responsible purchasing attitudes.

The Master of Food is the most comprehensive and innovative food study program for Slow Food members. Its program (divided into 23 subject courses yielding a total of around 90 theoretical/practical lessons) addresses the whole food and wine spectrum. Courses are organized by convivia—the local branches of the association around Italy—as part of their program of activities and defined according to members' wishes.

Any Slow Food member taking part in at least 15 of the 23 course available is awarded the Master of Food certificate, a recognition of the commitment and dedication shown by those furthering their knowledge of food culture.

In 2006 Slow Food expects about 9500 people will be involved in the program through 400 courses run during the year.