The Real Food Passport now being stamped by Camborne students

An apple in one hand, a booklet in the other. That is the new look of lunchtime for hundreds of students at Camborne Science and International Academy, where a pink passport is getting stamped every week as part of a five-week push to get more real food onto plates.

Stamps, passports and a leaderboard nobody wants to be at the bottom of

The Real Food project asks students to build elements of real food into their meals and snacks, then record it in a Real Food Passport. A new group of student Food Ambassadors stamps the passports each week, while tutor groups compete against each other on a leaderboard built on the number of stamps collected.

It is not just about what goes in the lunchbox. Alongside the challenge, students are exploring how food choices affect mood, concentration, energy and overall health through a programme of activities and discussions running through the five weeks.

📷Students take part in the Real Food challenge

A live brief that started as one of fifteen pitches

The project began life as a live brief for advertising students at Be Good, Falmouth University’s in-house agency, founded by senior lecturer Lucy Cokes. Students researched the school environment and pitched ideas for encouraging healthier food choices, and third-year student Jessica Toze’s concept was chosen from fifteen pitches earlier this year. It was developed over the summer into posters, educational materials, the leaderboard and the Real Food Passports themselves.

“On our Behaviour Change for Good module, students learn about the science of behaviour change and apply it to real-world projects,” said Lucy. “For this project, they researched the school environment and the students themselves before developing ideas to encourage healthier food choices. I’m really interested to see how the intervention affects the food choices students make at Camborne Academy. If it proves successful, we hope to explore whether the approach could be used in other schools too.”

The GP behind the science

Dr Rhiannon Day-Thompson, a GP with a special interest in commercial food environments and the microbiome, has supported the project throughout.

“The Real Food Project is about giving young people the knowledge and confidence to tell the difference between foods that support their health and those that don’t,” Rhiannon said. “This groundbreaking project is both educational and motivational, helping students to understand the ultra-processed food environment we all live in, the biology of how food can affect our bodies and minds, and most importantly, to feel empowered to make informed choices.”

📷A student puts healthy eating into practice

Part of a longer rethink of what is on the menu

The five-week challenge sits inside a wider review of the school’s food offer, with students and staff invited to help shape a new menu, suggest meals and take part in taste-testing sessions. It builds on a Community Feast held at the school in June, where students helped create and develop a menu built around healthy, sustainable and locally sourced food.

Emma Haase, Principal of Camborne Science and International Academy, said the project was about more than the next five weeks.

“Healthy eating is important to our students now, but it is also about helping them develop good habits for life beyond school,” Emma said. “We want them to understand more about the food they eat and the choices they can make for their own health and wellbeing. It has been great to see students involved from the start and now taking on leadership roles as Food Ambassadors. Working with a local doctor and Falmouth University has also brought different perspectives into the project and given students the chance to ask questions about the food they eat every day.”

Winning tutor groups from each year group will be invited to a Celebration Harvest Feast once the five weeks are up. For now, the stamps are still being collected.

📷A Camborne student shows off their food passport