International World Pulses Day, celebrated annually on February 10th or during the week leading up to this date, serves as a global reminder of the power of beans and pulses in nourishing communities, and building a more sustainable food future. Many cities committed to improving food systems are launching targeted initiatives to support the protein transition and increase legume consumption, recognizing their potential for better nutrition, sustainability, and food security.
Legumes offer not only significant health benefits, being packed with essential vitamins and minerals, but they also stand out as one of the most sustainable crops on the planet. They enrich the soil by fixing nitrogen, which improves soil quality, reduces the need for chemical fertilizers, and contributes to climate-resilient farming practices when grown according to agroecological and organic principles. Their unprocessed nature allows them to be dried or canned, offering resilience during supply chain disruptions. Moreover, they are affordable and adaptable to diverse cultures and cuisines.
To celebrate their positive impact in shaping a healthier, and future-proof world, we’ve gathered recent experiences carried out from three cities involved in the Horizon 2020 Food Trails project: Birmingham which dedicated a pilot to increasing legume consumption among youth; Funchal which, focusing on food literacy, found World Pulses Day a great lever for furthering these goals; and Milan, which designed an innovative educational format for children to engage with legumes.
Let’s dive into the best practices from these cities!
Birmingham and the “Full of Beans – Holidays Activities and Food Programme (HAF)”
Birmingham’s Protein Transition pilot aimed to increase legume consumption among youth aged from 4 to 16 participating in summer holiday clubs. The initiative is part of Birmingham’s Full of Beans campaign, which is all about increasing the amount of beans and pulses eaten in schools, in families, and in food businesses, encouraging healthier eating habits in the city.
Why this choice? This approach aligns with the objectives of the Birmingham Food System Strategy 2022 to 2030, in relation to both consuming a nutritious diet which helps us thrive and reducing harm to the world around us. The Birmingham City Council officers delivering the pilot already had a strong working relationship with the provider overseeing the Holidays Activities and Food Programme. Plus, the HAF programme offers more flexibility with its schedule compared to schools, allowing for fun activities that don’t need to align with the school curriculum. Another key aspect is that the children attending this programme come from the most vulnerable communities in the city. The places were allocated to children eligible for Free School Meals, meaning they were aged 4 to 16 and live in households receiving income-related benefits. This target group is particularly important because children living in poverty have fewer opportunities to try new foods, partly because families cannot afford the risk of offering something unfamiliar that the child may reject. Finally, the HAF programme provides a unique opportunity to engage children in a social setting, which has proven to be one of the most effective approaches to changing children’s eating habits.
In Summer 2023, Birmingham successfully carried out these activities at 70 Holiday Activities and Food Programme clubs, reaching up to 4,200 children. To achieve this, they developed three key resources, to help discover, explore and celebrate beans and pulses through growing, tasting and cooking activities. The 3 resources include: an activity pack for leaders to use during the club sessions; a children’s booklet to complete at the club and take home, and a family booklet to take home. Download the booklets from the Birmingham City Council website
Funchal‘s pilot “Community Engagement. Events and educational activities around sustainable and healthy diets”
Before Food Trails, the city of Funchal had a strong environmental focus and, through participation in the project, they decided to work to link these efforts with food sustainability. A milestone in this journey came in 2023 when Funchal launched its first Food Strategy, called ‘Semear’, co-designed after extensive bottom-up work with stakeholders and citizens.
As part of its Food Trails Living Lab, Funchal aimed at empowering citizens on sustainable diets through food literacy initiatives, including events and engaging booklets for variuos target audiences.
The city began by organizing the ‘Funchal Food Week,’ which featured conferences, workshops, cooking demos, and teacher training sessions. With the growing importance of the protein transition, Funchal also began celebrating ‘World Pulses Day,’ hosting a week of educational activities that successfully engaged students and institutions alike.
In line with this focus, Funchal developed a booklet titled Leguminosa Maravilhosa, which contains four legume-based recipes specifically designed for children. A key part of Funchal’s efforts is the opening of the FunLab Science Centre, an educational space promoting food literacy through hands-on experiments and activities, supported by the University of Madeira.
Some of the results from Funchal’s pilot program include 99,940 citizens engaged in food literacy activities from October 2020 to October 2024, and 362 students and institutions participating in World Pulses Day from 2022 to 2024. This year, the tradition of celebrating pulses continues, with the FUNLAB hosting 230 primary school children, who had the opportunity to experiment with and cook healthy legume-based recipes.
It’s particularly important that the city remains committed to the importance of food education from an early age, even after the EU funding of the Horizon 2020 Food Trails, recognising the impact of these initiatives on changing family food habits.
To learn more, visit the websites: https://pem.funchal.pt/ and https://semear.funchal.pt
Milan and the “Legume Hackathon: Young Chefs for Sustainable Eating”
Milan‘s efforts towards healthy and sustainable food date back to 2015 when the city adopted a food policy within the EXPO event. “Educating about food” is one of the five key priorities of the city’s food policy, and clearly, the educational and training system is a key asset to leverage, as well as collaborating with the municipal company responsible for school meals, Milano Ristorazione.
In this regard, before delving into the experimental initiative carried out through Food Trails, it is worth mentioning the long-term daily work in collaboration with Milano Ristorazione to enrich the school menus with tasty and nutritious legume-based recipes—such as lentils, chickpeas, and soy—served at least once a week, in line with international recommendations from the World Health Organization and the Health Protection Agency (ATS).
In partnership with the innovation agency, Cariplo Factory, Milan launched an initiative in September 2024, targeting children with an innovative hackathon format, the “Hackathon dei Legumi. Piccoli chef per un’alimentazione sostenibile”. Hackathons are excellent educational forums and powerful social events where communities engage in participatory processes, becoming agents of change. The “Hackathon dei Legumi” aimed to educate children on the nutritional benefits of legumes in an engaging way, assess existing knowledge, challenge prejudices about legumes, and promote design thinking and cooking activities to inspire healthier, more sustainable food choices.
The event was held over two days. The first day included interactive educational sessions on sustainable eating and legumes, a tour of a Milano Ristorazione kitchen center, and a recipe design workshop where children worked in small groups to create their own recipes. At the end of the day, these recipes were handed over to the chefs of Milano Ristorazione. On the second day, the chefs cooked the best two recipes, while the children acted as food critics, tasting and evaluating the dishes.
The initiative successfully engaged 35 students aged 9-10, from two fourth-grade classes—a small group, but suitable for testing the activity’s effectiveness, with plans to replicate it with a wider audience.
“I didn’t know a whole office was needed to manage the kitchen, so many people work to prepare our lunch.”
“Can I have seconds?! These are the best legumes I’ve ever tasted.”
These are just a few examples of feedback from children after the activity. Today, Milan continues its innovative actions on food education through another Horizon 2020 project, School Food for Change.
By embracing pulses and celebrating World Pulses Day, these cities have found powerful tools to support healthier, more sustainable urban food systems and contribute to a future-proof world.
Hopefully, their experiences will inspire other cities to adopt similar commitments towards protein transition and engaging initiatives.
