A Global Food Crisis

Earlier this week, pupils in Year 8 followed a collapsed timetable in an extended enquiry on the Global Food Crisis.

Using poetry and photographs, they began by exploring hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa and contrasted this with a consideration of food insecurity in the UK, the consequence of which, 2.8 m people used food banks in 2024. Pupils worked collaboratively to research hunger “hotspots” and they looked at the impact of conflict and climate change on selected countries. Jelly babies and crisps were used to explore the inequalities of food distribution in a World Diner Table Game.

Father Padfield spoke of the visit to Tanzania which he will undertake with Senior pupils in July and, against this backdrop, our Year 8s looked at the design principles of an infographic before using this format to outline the scope and impact of malnutrition.
In “The Journey of a Fish” they calculated the distance travelled by a herring caught in the North Sea and transported to their dinner plate in Rochester via a Shanghai packaging firm as pupils broadened their study to look at food sustainability.

Improved gender equality, Fair Trade Farming and consideration of harvesting marine ecosystems were all examined as creative solutions to problems of global hunger as the teams of pupils explored the interconnectedness of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Designing an app for a food bank and a “MasterChef”-inspired challenge on a food parcel brought the focus nearer to home as pupils concluded their in-depth studies which successfully promoted the Competencies underpinning the King’s Diploma.