Social justice and education have been variously connected in history, for instance with respect to how the right to learning could be effectively promoted by preventing that hunger or malnutrition blocked needy children’s educational achievement. The relationship between poverty, malnutrition and school results was explored, debated and successfully met with at the beginning of the XX century by Padua (Italy) local government at the level of compulsory primary education (Zamperlin 2005). However such relationship could still be a deeply felt political issue at the end of the 1960s, in the U.S.: in Oakland, CA, for instance, the provision of free breakfasts for poor Black children was a militant move made, and widely advertised, by the Black Panthers. And today it remains a burning problem at the international level, as the following UNCHR ad denounces: “It is hard to stay focused on math when you have to reckon with hunger”.

The paper for ECER 2013 is a follow up of a research carried out in three Padua municipal pre-schools (two asili nido [nurseries] and a scuola dell’infanzia [infancy school]) whose partial results were communicated at ECER 2012 and AAA 2012 (Gobbo 2012a, 2012b). I initially intended to explore the use of food in multicultural educational contexts, but the observation of school lunches and their preparation made me realize the greater complexity of cultural and educational meanings that school meals entailed. Interestingly, even in these times of economic crisis, the connection between social justice and educational rights did not appear to be related to children’s and families’ basic needs and was instead elaborated by teachers in terms of social and food sustainability as well as of a correct diet: such topics and goals were developed through a special project.

In my presentation I will delve into the teachers’ reasons for enacting the so called “Food Project” in the scuola dell’infanzia (for children between 3 and 6 years of age) that they narrated through five professional life stories I collected. 

Gobbo F. (2012a), Nourishing Learning, Nourishing Culture, (paper presented at ECER Cadiz, ntw 19, Sept. 2012). Gobbo F. (2012b), The “RIGHT” food at the “RIGHT” time in the “RIGHT” way: the art of cooking for nursery and kindergarten children (paper presented at AAA Annual Meeting, San Francisco CA, Nov. 2012) Zamperlin P. (2005), Nutrire il corpo per nutrire la mente: istituzione e primo funzionamento della refezione scolastica a Padova (1900-1915), in Chiaranda M. (a cura di), Teorie educative e processi di formazione nell’età giolittiana, Pensa Multimedia, Lecce, pp. 299-323.