SDG 02: Zero Hunger

Teacher Guide

This guide offers educators a structured yet adaptable framework, including background information, practical examples, and didactic strategies. All exercises can be completed without having any specific pre-existing knowledge about the topic. They build on each other but can also be carried out independently of each other, and individually. Of course, you can make adjustments as needed. The modular structure allows for flexible implementation - lessons can be taught sequentially or individually, depending on time constraints and students' prior knowledge.

It is ideally suited for subject lessons or project-based learning and can also be utilized outside the traditional classroom setting by environmental groups and clubs.

Boardstory

Together with your students watch the short and fact-based boardstory on SDG 2. If terms are unclear, students can also be asked to write down unknown terms and questions so that they can be clarified after watching the boardstory. Student questions can also create the opportunity for further inquiry and exploration.

Take a second look at the boardstory and use the pause button on the player to ask comprehension questions. Use the interactive exercises embedded in the boardstory. The three exercise types - search game, impulse questions, and quiz - allow you to discuss the content, improve understanding and deepen knowledge on SDG 2.

Student Workbook

After watching the boardstory you can extend and enhance the learning process using the "Student Workbook" for which background information, didactic notes and explanation to each of the exercises can be found in the tab "Teaching Unit".

EXPLORING THE BOARDSTORY

This is a wrap-up activity that helps the students connect what they have learned with the content of the Boardstory. Through discussion and reflection, they will revisit key themes, reinforce their understanding, and explore real-world applications of the story's message.

Session 1:

Watch the short, fact-based SDG 2 boardstory with your students. Have an initial discussion and solve the integrated interactive tasks.

Before watching the boardstory for the first time, give the students a listening task: "What do you learn in the boardstory?" Possibly with the addition: "Remember at least three things."

Then, ask the students to describe the boardstory by asking the following:

• What happened in the boardstory?

• What caught your interest and why?

• Why is it important that no one suffers from hunger?

Session 2:

Work (further) on the worksheets.

Hand out the worksheets "EXPLORING THE BOARDSTORY" from the student workbook to engage the students in the content of the SDG 2 Boardstory.

GLOBAL HUNGER

This activity helps students understand which countries are most affected by hunger and why.

Step 1: Introduction Worksheet

Start with worksheet "GLOBAL HUNGER" to introduce the students to the topic. This will help them understand why hunger needs to be looked at from a global scale and why it is a problem.

Step 2: Research Assignment

Which countries are especially affected by hunger? The students will explore the causes, effects, and unique characteristics of countries most affected by hunger, using the Global Hunger Index as a resource.

You can find the current Global Hunger Index online: www.globalhungerindex.org. The index highlights the most affected countries in orange. In 2024 that were Chad, Burundi, South Sudan, Madagascar, Somalia and Yemen.

Global Hunger Index 2024

Divide the class into small groups and assign each group one of the most affected countries. The students will research the assigned country and how it is affected by hunger.

Let the students use the research template in the student workbook to guide them in gathering information.

Step 3: Presentation Project

Each group will create a presentation about their assigned country, focusing on:

• The impact of hunger: How does hunger affect people's daily lives? What challenges do they face?

• Country highlights: What is unique about this country? (e.g. history, famous places, environment)

PLANETARY HEALTH DIET

In this exercise, students will engage with the concept of the Planetary Health Diet by analyzing a selection of food items and sorting them based on their carbon footprint, from the highest to the lowest. A key aspect of this approach is understanding how different foods affect the environment, particularly in terms of CO₂-emissions. Additionally, students can put together two dishes they would like to eat: one dish with a high and one with a low carbon footprint. This is also a good exercise to do as homework and to present in class in the next lesson. The exercise aims to consolidate the students' previous learnings about the environmental impact of their own food choices, increases their awareness and boosts their self-efficacy. By creating two recipes, students will learn how to make food choices that support both their health and the health of the planet. Which in turn enhances a better nutrition for everyone in an effort to combat hunger.

The Planetary Health Diet is a scientifically based food plan recommendation that supports both human health and the health of the planet. It was developed in 2019 by an international team of scientists, the EAT-Lancet Commission. The Planetary Health Diet is the result of their research on whether and how we can feed a future population of 10 billion people a healthy diet within planetary boundaries. The main aspects include eating mostly plants and fewer animal-based foods which has been shown to have both health benefits and a positive impact on the planet.

In order to introduce this exercise, discuss or explain the term Planetary Health Diet, its purpose and positive contribution on maintaining a livable planet and food security. You can include how there are connections between food production, climate change and hunger. Furthermore, create an understanding that before a food item reaches the supermarket for us to buy, it goes through several stages—each one contributing to CO₂-emissions. Ask your students what stages they can think of and how CO₂-emissions might be caused in this stage.

Possible answers:

• Growing: Food must be grown, raised, or harvested. This requires energy for farming, irrigation, and sometimes the use of fertilizers and pesticides, all of which can release greenhouse gases.

• Processing: Processing often involves factories, energy use, and transportation.

• Packaging: Packaging often involves further materials, factories, energy use, and transportation.

• Distribution/Transporting: Food is shipped from the farm or factory to the supermarket, a process that can involve long-distance travel, using vehicles, even container ships and airplanes, which add to the carbon footprint.

Handout the worksheet "PLANETARY HEALTH DIET" from the student workbook. A list of food items is provided. You can either use the list from the student workbook or you choose food items that better suit the eating habits in your region. The students will work in pairs or individually to sort the food items according to their carbon footprint. Students can do web research to find out the different carbon footprints in case access is available.

Solution: Below you can find the carbon footprint of foods listed on the cards. Unless further specified, the average product is meant.

Small basket (up to 1 kg CO₂/kg)

Regional Apples in season: 0.3 kg CO₂/kg
Tomatoes grown locally in season: 0.3 kg CO₂/kg
Fresh vegetables: 0.2 kg CO₂/kg
Bread: 0.6 kg CO₂/kg
Pasta: 0.7 kg CO₂/kg
Oat milk: 0.3 kg CO₂/kg
Pineapple shipped: 0.6 kg CO₂/kg
Tofu: 1.0 kg CO₂/kg

Medium basket (1.1 - 5.0 kg CO₂/kg)

Organic Milk: 1.7 kg CO₂/kg
Tomatos grown locally in greenhouse out of season: 2.9 kg CO₂/kg
Eggs: 3.0 kg CO₂/kg
Rice: 3.1 kg CO₂/kg
Milk chocolate: 4.1 kg CO₂/kg

Large basket (5.1 – 15 kg CO₂/kg)

Cheese: 6.0 kg CO₂/kg
Butter: 9.0 kg CO₂/kg
Frozen Prawns: 12.5 kg CO₂/kg
Beef: 13.6 kg CO₂/kg
Pineapple air plane: 15 kg CO₂/kg

To complete the task discuss which aspects are important to consider and how students can make food choices that support the protection of the planet. You might summarize all important aspects on the board. These can be:

• Plant-based or animal-based diet

• Seasonality

• Origin

• Processing

• Transport

• Storage

• Packaging

To further broaden the view you might ask for other environmental footprints that are connected to the production of food such as water and land use. Students might discuss whether the allocation of the food items on the cards would be similar when applying water or land use.

Ask your students, how a low carbon footprint regarding someone's diet, enhances a better nutrition for everyone in an effort to combat hunger.

FOOD WASTE

Students create slogans for misshapen fruits and vegetables. This is a creative and engaging way to help them rethink these (beauty) standards and challenge the idea that food must look a certain way to be valuable or useful. This promotes a more inclusive and realistic view of food that values nutrition over appearance. Students might come to appreciate how much produce is lost before it even reaches their plates and you could talk about the environmental consequences of wasting food, such as the waste of water, energy, and land usage.

20 % of fruits and vegetables are thrown away because of their appearance such as a shape that does not comply with standards, blemishes or unexpected colors even though they contain a high amount of nutrients. Students might not be used to buying or eating misshapen vegetables and fruits, because they rarely see them in the supermarkets. Imagine if this food is not discarded as garbage. Would not this be a solution to make nutritious food available to more people in need?

Handout the worksheet "FOOD WASTE" from the student workbook. You can either take the pictures in the workbook or use pictures of products that better reflect the variety of products in your region. Students can work in groups or individually.

This exercise can be taken as an opportunity to discuss further aspects in terms of food waste. Possible questions to consider might be:

• What are other reasons for food waste than the appearance?

• What can we do to avoid food waste?

• What role could wasting food play in combating hunger?

TAKING ACTION

Students are encouraged to critically reflect on how they can create and support a healthier, more affordable food environment within their school. Students will design and propose actionable solutions that promote access to nutritious, affordable food for all students, aligning with their learning about sustainable and healthy eating practices.

To introduce the exercise, ask students to reflect on current food options at school. What kind of food is available? Is it healthy and which aspects would make it healthier? Is it sustainable? Is it affordable? What do we know about the provision of the food?

Step 1: Brainstorming

Divide students into small groups of 3-4 in order to brainstorm solutions to increase access to healthy, sustainable and affordable food at school. Collect answers on possible solutions on the board. Guiding questions could be:

• How can we get access to sustainable and healthy food in school?

• How could we make healthy food more affordable?

• What resources do we need to implement this idea?

• In which way will this solution promote sustainability?

• Who will be involved in the implementation of this idea?

• Can we work with existing or new food providers to bring this kind of food to school?

Handout the worksheet "TAKING ACTION" from the student workbook. Each group can use the guiding worksheets to plan their action.

Step 2: Action Plan

Discuss the list on the board in terms whether they could be feasible and effective and why. If they are effective but not feasible, are there ways to make those ideas more feasible?

Then, each group chooses one idea and develops an action plan with the aim of implementing that idea.

In this action plan they consider which is also guided by the worksheet:

Goal: What is the objective? What outcomes shall we foster and which outcome is fostered by whom?

• Steps: What are the necessary steps to take?

• Resources: Are there any resources that we need?

• Timeline: How long does it take to implement the goal and do we need milestones or deadlines?

• Stakeholders: who needs to be involved?

In the next step, the action plans can be presented. You can encourage the students to ask questions, give feedback and rethink ideas.

Step 3: Implementation

Is there an idea you would like to realize as a class or are there even multiple ideas that are feasible? You could offer to provide a small time slot in certain intervals to review and track the status of the project and offer help while implementing.