Executive committee vice president and Chippewa Valley Bean CEO Cindy Brown attended the Brazilian Bean Forum 2015 to talk about the many GPC projects which are underway. While at this conference, Cindy saw positive feedback for the upcoming year, along with many exciting activities to be conducted throughout Brazil.
One of these exciting projects includes Mais Feijão, or Project More Beans, which is a project developed by the Instituto Brasileiro de Feijão e Pulses – IBRAFE – (Brazilian Institute of Beans and Pulses) to make Brazilian children aged 6 to 7 aware of the benefits of regular intake of beans and through children, spread such awareness to all Brazilian society, in line with the International Year of Pulses declared by UN for 2016. The project intends to work simultaneously with second year of elementary school kids from public and private schools in a great Brazilian capital: Curitiba, which today has around 118,000 children enrolled in the early years of elementary school (First to Fifth grades), not including the metropolitan area. This is its first edition and it intends to become a permanent event in order to reach a wider audience.
The focus of the subject is the bean, which consists of the base food for Brazilians, but usually rejected by kids, influenced by popularity of the so called junk food.
The Instituto Brasileiro de Feijão e Pulses – IBRAFE – (Brazilian institute of Beans and Pulses) is a private law civil association, non-profitable, which congregates legal entities and individuals connected to the productive chamber of beans and its commercialization directly or through its class associations, private companies, public institutions, schools, universities, research institutes, cooperatives, government agencies and their applications, all aimed at promoting consumption, encouraging research and fostering technological development.
The Mais Feijão project (Project More Beans) demands people’s investments and meaningful resources.
Its schedule covers different stages, as listed below:
- Preparation of teaching materials suitable for the age of the target audience
- Contact with education departments and schools to present the project
- Implementation of the project with children