’Play Food from the Future’ teaches children to eat insects and food waste

The world’s leading sustainability award, WIN WIN Gothenburg Sustainability Award, wants to make kids and their parents used to the thought of eating insects and food waste. 
”Play Food from the Future” is a set of 3D printed toys designed to spark conversation and imaginative play around how we will eat in the future, and broaden the interest for sustainable food.

Parents might have a hard time getting children to eat their veggies or try new food, but here’s a whole other challenge: to get both children and their parents interested in eating in a more sustainable way. As part of the Sustainable Development Goals, The United Nations has set a goal to reduce global food waste by 50% by the year 2030. To achieve this, and to make our food habits more sustainable than today, one thing is clear: both attitude and behavior will have to change. People will also have to start eating things that will take some time getting used to.

As the world’s leading sustainability award, WIN WIN Award recognizes and supports outstanding sustainable contributions around the world. The prize has been presented in Gothenburg since 2000, with the goal to stimulate creativity and achieve lasting synergies between ecological, environmental and social needs. Previous winners include Al Gore, Gro Harlem Brundtland, and Kofi Annan.

– The theme for this year’s award is sustainable food – an issue of severe complexity and crucial for our survival. Changes in our behavior patterns are essential to achieve a sustainable way of living. Play and imagination is a fun and educational way to challenge people’s attitudes towards what can, and what can’t, be seen as edible food, says Lovisa Ralpher, Project Manager at WIN WIN Award.

To broaden the interest and trigger curiosity about sustainable food, WIN WIN Award launches a new set of toys representing different sustainable foods from the future, to get the new generation used to the idea of eating things that even some adults might reject.

– Each toy represents a type of sustainable food which children might not be used to eating today, but that we might have to eat in the future in order to save the planet. The menu of the future consists of insects, algae, food waste, powders, and other nutritious and environmentally friendly food, says Petter Swanberg, one of the creatives at Forsman & Bodenfors.

”Play Food from the Future” is developed with support from the scientist Ingrid Strid at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. It is a for good-project by WIN WIN Gothenburg Sustainability Award, creative agency Forsman & Bodenfors, branding agency Happy F&B, and the technology for the toys is developed in close collaboration with Cheil Nordic. The toys have a playful, simple design, aimed to spark a discussion around what is considered to be food and not, challenge the “yuck factor” – and hopefully open up both children’s and parents’ minds.

All of the toys are free to download at playfoodfromthefuture.com

See more: https://youtu.be/k-lWC2OYh4I