Graslitzer Primary School

Project: The Grasi school chickens

You can find more detailed information about our project in the picture or the PDF for download.

Marlishausen daycare center

Project: Organic from the nursery garden

As part of our “Tip against heat” project, we offered a drinking station with water mixed with different types of fruit.
This was a welcome change and actually encouraged people to drink.
As it was so well received, we came up with the idea for a project.
Trellis fruit and berry stems are to be planted in the nursery garden with the children so that they can help themselves to the orchard next year and possibly pimp their own drinking water according to their mood.
This would require different types of fruit and berries, as well as natural fertilizers, gardening tools suitable for children and drinking water dispensers with fruit inserts.
Of course, it would be ideal if we had a harvest next year that the children could harvest themselves.

Weiß-Ferdl Middle School Altötting

Project: Ferdl for Future – Coming up with the chicken

Since the 2022/2023 school year, six chickens have been a permanent fixture at Weiß-Ferdl Middle School.
Why does a school keep chickens?
In recent years, we have noticed time and again that fewer and fewer children know where our food actually comes from.
What better way to teach them about this topic than with our own chickens?
By caring for the animals, we can help the children make connections with nature and animals.
Pupils are taught about the origins of food so that they are able to make conscious food choices themselves and perhaps even convince their own parents of this.
By looking after the chickens, they learn to appreciate the value of organic products.
They realize that organically produced products require an enormous amount of effort and therefore understand better why organic products are more expensive.
The responsibility that comes with the daily care of the chickens teaches the children care and discipline.
They take care of feeding them with high-quality organic feed, collect eggs, let the chickens run free and clean the coop regularly.
Chickens also make perfect sense in terms of sustainability.
We are always sorry when food ends up in the bin at school, but with the chickens we now have enthusiastic consumers.
In addition, chickens are perfect for eliminating garden pests and producing nutrient-rich organic fertilizer for our school garden. Teaching and organic nutrition Our project also enables interdisciplinary teaching.
A shelter and additional perches have already been built for our chickens.
It is particularly worth mentioning that the pupils deal with the topic of organic nutrition in their lessons.
This supports our efforts to teach the children about the importance of regional and organic products.
The teachers of nutrition and social studies are also enthusiastic about the chickens, as they can integrate the topics of regionality and sustainability into their lessons in the best possible way.
It should not be forgotten that animals can promote children’s social behavior.
Animals have a positive influence, also on the children’s psyche. Optimal conditions for the chickens We want to make it as pleasant as possible for the chickens and already offer them far better living conditions than required by law.
Nevertheless, we would be delighted if we could enlarge the enclosure with your help so that our feathered friends have even more space.
Of course, the chickens can also live out their old age with us, as this is also part of species-appropriate animal husbandry. Long-term project Our project is long-term and not limited in time.
We want the chickens to become an integral part of our school life in the distant future.
The project does not end with the acquisition of the animals and their habitat.
There are countless ways in which the project can be extended, for example through calculations, statistics or surveys in class. It would also be conceivable to visit organic farmers in the area to compare the way they keep their animals with ours. What would we do with the money? We would like to extend the chickens’ enclosure so that they have more space in the afternoon.
To protect the chickens in their new enclosure against wind and weather, we would also like to buy a weather protection tarpaulin and an anti-frost blanket for the winter.
We could also use the money to cover the running costs of keeping the chickens, such as feed and litter.
As we also attach great importance to organic quality for these two items, this cost factor should not be underestimated.
To ensure that the chickens don’t get bored, especially at the weekend, we would like to get them an activity set.
A stand and a second set of containers would be very practical so that the chickens also have access to water and food in their free run.
As our organic eggs together with our school honey always make a good gift for special occasions, we would like to present them in a more appealing way and have therefore come across egg stamps.

St. Zeno Foundation; CAMINO children’s home

Project: Life on the farm

We have been a “One World Daycare Center – fair and global” for 6 years, with many small projects we want to make our children fit for the future of our world and agriculture, with its important task of feeding the world and preserving biodiversity, fits perfectly into our portfolio.
Around 20 children in our house aged 4 to 5 work on projects about life on the farm.
We look at many farm animals, such as chickens, pigs and bees, and learn a lot through non-fiction books and educational videos.
We also discuss why we keep these animals and what people expect from them.
We will also discuss agriculture and the many machines that farmers need.
We also want to give the children an understanding of farming in the past and today.
Of course, we will also buy many agricultural products at the farmers’ market/organic market and use them to make snacks, soup or cakes.
“A healthy, balanced snack”
Focus on organic, regional and fair and with little waste We also want to buy the food for our healthy breakfast at the farmers’ market and organic food store.
We want to use a lot of creativity to make farm animals and make lots of things out of packaging waste.
To save resources, we borrow lots of non-fiction books from the city library.
We have already bought picture cards on the topic for the Kamischibai.
We also want to pick up on the farm theme in movement units, songs and finger plays.
The children will also sow, tend and harvest vegetables and flowers in our 3 raised beds.
It will be particularly exciting for the children when we hatch chicken eggs in the incubator and accompany them until the chicks hatch.
Afterwards, the chicks are allowed to move into an outdoor enclosure with a colleague and are accompanied for a long time with videos and visits.
Finally, we want to take the bus to a farm together and experience it in real life.
There are bus costs for the visit to the farm.
We would like to purchase farm animals for the free play time.
For this purpose, we would like to buy animals from the Ostheimer company, which produces animals from wood in an inclusive workshop.
There will also be a parents’ evening with a speaker.
The project period is in April/May 2025

Montessori children’s home

Project: Orchard meadow with bee colonies

This promotion is made for us, because organic is very important to us and we also want to teach the children who attend our Montessori children’s house values that can be better represented with organic, e.g. appreciation of people, animals and nature.
We buy our snacks, which the children prepare and serve at a buffet, from an organic food store.
Every week we spend a morning in an orchard, where we also harvest and process what we have harvested (e.g. apple juice).
Naturally BIO!
This orchard is also home to several bee colonies.
Here we work together with organic beekeepers.
And … Of course, we also visit an organic farm every now and then or invite the organic farmer to come to our forest kindergarten to pull wood with his horse.

Kneipp kindergarten “Wachbergknirpse”

Project: whole-grain-cereal-into-what-can-we-turn-it-into

We are the “Wachbergknirpse” kindergarten from Brattendorf in beautiful Thuringia.
Our kindergarten is a certified “Kneipp kindergarten” in the middle of the countryside.
There are 5 “Kneipp pillars” of the “Kneipp teachings”.
Our pedagogical concept is based on them and, above all, we live by them.
The 5 pillars are: Water, exercise, life order, herbs and nutrition.
It is therefore a natural and very important part of our educational work to introduce the pillars of nutrition and therefore healthy food – preferably organic – to the children in a playful and life-related way, in an educationally valuable and sustainable way.
We have long wanted to implement the BIO project described below with the Wachbergknirpsen.
Unfortunately, however, we do not yet have the equipment or the financial means to procure it.
With the project “VOLL-KORN-GETREIDE-IN-WAS-KÖNEN-WIR-ES-VERWANDELN”, which is close to our hearts, we would like to inspire our kindergarten children for a healthy organic lifestyle and hopefully continue and maintain the things they have acquired with their help in our facility in the future.
The educational areas of our Thuringian education plan (according to which we work) are also fulfilled with this project.
These are, for example, the following educational areas: scientific education, language education, mathematical education, musical education, physical-psychological health education.
We have the following ideas and need the following things for our “VOLL-KORN-GETREIDE-IN-WAS-KÖNEN-WIR-ES-VERWANDELN” project: What types of grain are there?
Implementation?

• Hike and get to know cultivated grain fields in the surrounding area
• Experience visit to an organic farmer with an organic store in the village of Neida near Bad Rodach, guided tour of the organic store and bakery, bottling and purchase of the harvested grains (spelt, rye, oats) in organic quality
• Getting to know old varieties such as emmer…
• How was grain milled and baked in the past?
  Visit to an old, still functioning mill in the nearby Vessra Monastery Museum
• From grain to bread – how do we grind and bake today?
  Visit to a baker and his bakery in the neighboring village of Crock
• We grind the grain ourselves in the kindergarten with the new grain mill
• We make sourdough and bake bread.
  Our home-made bread dough is baked in a real bakery and on the “DENKplatte”: In cooperation with the local heritage association, we bake the bread dough in the large bakehouse
• In future, bread dough will be baked on Denk’s baking plate (bread size for 2 groups).
  These will be baked regularly and eaten at the healthy breakfast
• We invite the baker to our kindergarten and he also bakes cakes and other treats with us from our grain
• Regular muesli breakfast with our own flakes Flakes are flaked and soaked the day before
• A dream: baking in our new wood-fired oven We bake in it regularly, with our own dough made from freshly ground organic grain from the farmer in organic quality

This is not a complete list of ideas, which may grow over time, as well as the children who will be able to help shape and hopefully experience this new BIO project.

Theodor Heuss Community School

Project: Theos Wiese – Sustainable and meaningful learning outdoors in and with nature

Our profile at the Theodor-Heuss-Gemeinschaftsschule is called “Theos Wiese”.
Our aim is to work with the pupils from the profile class of the
5th and
6th year to learn outside in and with nature in the most sustainable and meaningful way possible.
Our chickens, guinea pigs, sheep, goats and bees help us to achieve this, but the meadow and garden also make a great contribution to creating experiences of nature.
We would like to start a new gardening year with the children next spring and prepare and eat the harvest of our efforts in the summer ourselves, but also offer some of it for sale.
The planning and implementation are a lot of fun, but of course it also costs a lot of money: organic seeds and seedlings, the maintenance and purchase of new tools, the installation of a water supply in the garden, but also a cargo bike to be able to offer our harvested fruit and vegetables at the weekly market, among other things.

Radis & Bona cooperative store

Project: Sustainable nutrition with all senses

As the BuenaVita e.V. association, we would like to apply for funding for our educational project “Sustainable nutrition with all senses”, which we run in the organic regional cooperative store in Regensburg.
We noticed from your funding that the institutions can actually apply, i.e. kindergartens and schools.
However, as we are aware of their time constraints, we are taking the initiative ourselves.
For example, the kindergarten next door to the store visited us three times during this year’s project, each time with a different age group, and we adapted our program to the age group in each case.
We would like to continue the project and, for example, taste or prepare even more fruit and vegetables from the store with the older children.
This would require equipment with boards or small knives or a table and bench.
Even purely voluntary educational work reaches its limits when it is well received and demand increases.
This also requires financial compensation, which is usually not available in these facilities.
We would therefore be delighted if you would support our educational project on the topic of “Sustainable nutrition with all senses”.  Current offers These offers are handled by the association “BuenaVita” e.V. and have so far been carried out in the Radis&Bona cooperative store.
We offer various modules for schools and day-care centers depending on the age group and objectives of the teachers:

• e.G. – what is it and why was this legal form chosen?
• The “regional value chain” R&B store
• What does sustainability and the assessment of food mean from this point of view – practically implemented with a purchase
• Sustainability in purchasing from various perspectives – including healthy eating
• Climate-friendly purchasing
• What does “organic production and processing” mean?
• Get to know and assess different organic labels
• Recognize and name foods – Match price tags to fresh products
• Regional food in our store and the distances in kilometers
• Seasonal foods and their importance
• When is food unsustainable and how do we deal with it?
• Packaging and deposit systems

  Also available for kindergartens: Kindergarten visit – pre-school group Duration max.
60 min.
at best from 9.00 to 10.00   Possibilities:

1. Set up fruit and vegetables together with the children and name them Illustrate the region: see “Radieserl-Film” on our homepage – Match pictures of our producers to the products, place them on the district map, what is near, what is far away

2. Exploring the fruit or vegetable corner with the children:

• What is your favorite vegetable (fruit)?
  What is good about it?
  Collect your favorite vegetables in the shopping basket
• What don’t you like at all?
  Why?
• What don’t you know?
  Collecting a basket of unknown vegetables

  Arrange your favorite vegetables from the basket on a table and name them again.
What do you cook with them?
Clarify allergies, blind tasting of prepared vegetables, if you like.   Place the unknown vegetable next to it on the table and name it.
Taste if you like. Play the game: I know something you don’t know and that is …

1. Explore fruit corner as soon as there is more regional fruit, e.g. strawberries – feel, smell, describe, taste
2. Spring: Feeling game with potatoes: and potatoes with sprouts – differences, why do potatoes do this?
   What do potatoes need to grow?
   Pot to put sprouted potatoes in, supplement with pictures, take sprouted potatoes back to the kindergarten for further observation and planting.
3. Beginning of May – exploration with runner beans/feeling game – plant runner beans and observe over 1 – 2 weeks in the kindergarten, either in the kindergarten as a bean tippi or in front of the store at the entrance
4. Eggs: Describe the product as a riddle – or also a feeling game with an egg – place it very carefully in the nest of hands and handle it with care – tell children what they know about eggs and chickens.
   Supplement with pictures of our chicken farmer and let the children talk about it.

Luzenberg youth club

Project: Urban gardening on the roof terrace of the youth club

As part of our urban gardening project, we want to offer young people the opportunity to actively engage with the topics of organic and sustainable agriculture.
We have already created raised beds on our spacious roof terrace, which offer ideal conditions for growing organic fruit, vegetables and herbs together.
The project has several objectives: It aims to provide young people with basic knowledge about organic farming methods and sustainable nutrition, teach them manual skills and at the same time create an awareness of the importance of environmental protection and resource conservation.
Through direct contact with nature and growing their own food, participants learn to appreciate the cycles of nature and are given the opportunity to take responsibility.
The Luzenberg district is one of the socially and structurally weakest in Mannheim.
With the youth center, which opened in summer 2024, youth work finally has a permanent location in the district.
The youth center is visited by an average of around 30 children and young people every day and we are constantly working on new activities and projects.
Unfortunately, our budget for this is limited, which is why we would like to apply for funding from Byodo.  Sustainability aspects: Our method of urban gardening is based on organic cultivation principles.
We only use organic fertilizers and do not use pesticides.
We also attach great importance to the resource-conserving use of water and the use of recycled materials to maintain the raised beds.
The project offers young people a practical alternative to industrial farming models and at the same time contributes to the greening of urban spaces.  Aims of the project: Imparting knowledge: The young people are taught about organic farming and sustainable nutrition.
Promoting environmental awareness: The young people develop an understanding of ecological relationships and environmental protection.
Strengthening the community: Gardening together promotes teamwork and social skills.
Promoting a healthy lifestyle: By growing their own food, participants become aware of healthy eating.  Project requirements: To successfully implement theproject, we need support in the form of organic seeds, organic fertilizers and gardening tools.
Further training for our project leaders in the field of sustainable agriculture would also be of great benefit.
For planting and maintenance, we need knowledgeable people who can support us.
We are thinking of cooperating with a local nursery.

ASB day care center Cuxhofwichtel

Project: More “organic” in our kindergarten

We are a kindergarten in the beautiful town of Mihla, which is located right next to the Hainich National Park and the Werra river. Our principle is: “Every child is unique and we meet them where they are.” Nature plays a major role in our pedagogy, as does a balanced organic diet. We incorporate it into our concept as full meals for our children. The aim of our nutritional education work is to enable children to take responsibility for their own eating and drinking habits. This includes the development of a sense of hunger and thirst, taste and sensory training, knowledge of hygiene and responsible handling of food. Furthermore, organic products from our own production are offered at mealtimes. We have several raised beds, which the children cultivate together with the teachers. Our snack corner with raspberries, currants and gooseberries is particularly popular. There are also some fruit trees in the outdoor area, which complete our meals with fruit after the harvest. Behind the kindergarten building lives our little family of chickens, who surprise us with eggs almost every day. The awareness of caring for the animals is something we live out in our kindergarten together with the parents, who take over the chicken duty with their children at the weekend. In order to provide the chicken family with organic food, we have entered into a cooperation with the local farming company, which has an organic certificate. They supply us with the feed and give the children an insight into organic farming. For example, there will soon be an excursion focusing on the shepherd and his flock of sheep. This form of landscape conservation is particularly ecological and brings the children closer to nature and animals. Our partner has purchased a special mower for mowing meadows, a double-knife cutter bar with a high-cutting camber, in order to mow the meadows more gently and thus keep them attractive for insects and not deprive them of their food source. We want to take a closer look at the machines during our visit to the farm. Our project “Hainich predators meet ecology – we explore the LMU – Mila agricultural enterprise” will continue into the fall. At the end, we want to celebrate a harvest thanksgiving party.