Nerucci School- Istituto Comprensivo statale Montale

Orto in Condotta is the Slow Food school garden project for Italy. The program aims to promote nutrition and environmental education. We use an interdisciplinary method, based on the fundamental role that food plays in everyone’s life.

For the Italian school gardens, growing a cabbage with the help of a grandpa is a way to create a new link with the older generation, improve manual abilities and social skills, and learn how to organize and care for common space. Picking a tomato links youth to the historical origin of the produce, to its shape and taste, and to the discovery of a thousand adjectives to describe it!

Slow Food volunteers help make this a real-world experience. Students from 3 to 13 (sometimes as old as 18!) come in contact with producers, cooks, and gastronomes, learning about their work and love for the earth and food. Many parents also get involved in the program and become part of a learning community that supports students to be aware in the contemporary world while also developing critical thinking and collaborative skills.