The Mindful Kitchen Project - shortlisted as sustainability champions at The Green Gown Awards 2024
Championing Sustainability - Great recognition of TU Dublin’s Mindful Kitchen Project’s ‘inside-out’ approach to sustainability in culinary arts education.
The Mindful Kitchen Project team on the Tallaght Campus were recently honoured in their shortlisting as sustainability champions by the Green Gown Awards UK/ Ireland. The Sustainability Champion Award recognises people at any level who have implemented a sustainability project or initiative (or several) and whose involvement has made a positive impact their peers, their institution, their students, their local community and/or their local workforce. A key criterion is actions that have been taken over and above the normal requirements of a person’s job or substantive role at the organisation. Our school was proud to be the also the only Irish university to be shortlisted.
The project uniquely uses mindful pedagogy to promote ‘sustainability from within’ in taught module design and delivery. Sustainability benefits are linked to:
(a) the student’s own personal sustainability as a student and when working in professional kitchens
(b) inspiring the application of sustainability practice to food through creativity.
(c) the delivery of applied food sustainability masterclasses by industry leaders to other students to inspire their practice
(d) a student-designed, student-centered approach for the modern integration of sustainability education into a practice-based skills programme
(e) design and provision of educational resources to promote the ease of embedding sustainability best practice by any culinary arts educator into their programmes
The Team
A team approach is key to the design and delivery of all the activities in the project. The team is comprised of five culinary arts lecturers: Denise Murray lead on chef selfcare, kitchen culture; Colm Folan lead on social gastronomy and engagement with social partner organizations; Vourneen Hennessy lead on food sustainability professional kitchen practice; Niall Hill lead on creative food sustainability for menu design and Annette Sweeney team lead, project innovation, project promotion, industry engagement, application of mindful pedagogy in culinary education, creativity skills.
Speaking on behalf of the team after the awards, Annette Sweeney stated that “The Mindful Kitchen Project as a global first in culinary education fosters a sustainability mindset empowering students to explore their creativity and increase consciousness of the global role of chefs to positively impact people and planet through food. This prestigious Green Gown Award shortlisting amplifies this exemplary approach to teaching and learning. While we were not winners on the night, being shortlisted is a great tribute to the value of our project within higher education”.
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TU Dublin had finalists across five categories at the Green Gown Awards:
- Decarbonising-by-District: How TU Dublin are pioneering two district heating projects,
- Sustainable shelter sleep-out for homelessness - Architectural Technologies Discipline at the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment
- Enactus TU Dublin – from dwindling numbers to international success,
- Annette Sweeney and The Mindful Kitchen Project Team - School of Culinary Arts & Food Technology,
- The IMPACT of NEMOS – An Irish Case-study for developing food sustainability competencies: educator professional development and service-learning as a signature pedagogy - School of Food Science & Environmental Health.
Read more about the projects here
With categories ranging from sustainability reporting to research with impact, individual actions and whole-organisation approaches, the Green Gown Awards continue to provide a national platform to showcase effective sustainability practice taking place in the Higher Education sector.
Established in 2004, the Green Gown Awards recognise the exceptional sustainability initiatives being undertaken by universities and colleges across the UK and Ireland. With sustainability now high on the agenda for many institutions, the awards have become established as one of the most prestigious recognitions of best practice within the further and higher education sector.