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My CanTeam Experience

Blog written by Kylie, student volunteer and a member of the CanTeam Crew at Bedford Academy

Introduction

When I was first introduced to CanTeam by one of my peers, I had very little information regarding the organisations aims and objectives. However after our first induction meeting, I met the leaders of the event and they gave me more insight on what they are trying to achieve. I was quite inspired by it and thought it was a great way to spread the feeling of community within the local area. I was also pleasantly surprised by the amount of independence we were given as a small group of students. We prepared each of the roles, timings and decal details. I participated in both events held at Bedford Academy and had roles regarding registration, serving and providing entertainment. The idea of gathering families together through food within schools is an impressive and exciting idea! It has such huge promise for the future and I am proud to say I have been a part of a hopefully successful project.

My CanTeam journey:

I learnt many skills whilst partaking in my volunteering opportunity. This includes both the actual planning and the event. During planning, we as a group had to go over many different ideas in a short amount of time. We were then forced to use a mixture of teamwork and time management to build the key aspects of the event. We assigned roles to everyone which we all took seriously and put our full effort in, contributing ideas and help to each other when needed. It was a great and rewarding challenge and we managed to create a solid plan for each of the events. One particular skill I got to adapt was communication skills, although I currently work as a barista, I still had a small initial struggle talking to the parents in this environment. However, after practice It was a pleasure to meet new people and learn different things about everyone.

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Final Thoughts:

I would definitely recommend the experience to other students. It was an excellent volunteering opportunity that provided immense potential for learning new skills. Throughout the experience, I was able to develop both personal and professional skills that will be valuable in my future endeavours. Moreover, it offered a fantastic chance to meet and connect with a diverse group of people, fostering meaningful relationships and expanding my network. The collaborative environment and the variety of tasks ensured that there was always something new to learn and engage with. Overall, this opportunity not only enriched my skill set but also broadened my perspectives, making it an invaluable experience that I would highly encourage other students to take part in.

I’m proud to have been able to spread a sense of community within my school!

Background:

CanTeam is an after school social dining initiative co-designed with young people that encourages students and their families to enjoy nutritious, delicious and diverse foods together.

Launched by Future Foundations in June 2023, CanTeam aims to embed a transformative food culture within schools, enabling young people to learn and thrive.

Over the first 6 months of the initiative, CanTeam was funded and supported by the Big Change Big Education Challenge to develop the concept, consult beneficiaries and test the idea. In January 2024, CanTeam was announced a winner of the Big Education Challenge and is being supported by Big Change to scale across the UK.  

In partnership with HEART Academies Trust and Bedford Academy Future Foundations delivered a two-event pilot of CanTeam.  The first was focused on Year 7 and 8 students and the second was opened up to local primary school families.  The catering was provided in-house by Russell Abbey, Head of Catering Services at HEART Academies Trust.  Many of the ingredients were kindly donated by Allmanhall.

We are excited to continue developing CanTeam and the impact we can have on the health and wellbeing of young people and their families throughout the UK.  

BIG NEWS – CanTeam, is a winner of the Big Education Challenge 

Future Foundations, the organisation behind CanTeam, has been awarded £225,000 to develop and pilot at scale the idea. The £1m prize fund is the first of its kind run by education charity Big Change and was set up to identify, support and reward bold ideas with the potential to transform education and learning in the UK.  Click here to find out more.

Find out more:

  • Read an article published by Bedford Today about the launch of CanTeam at Bedford Academy here
  • Read about the Challenge here
  • Read about CanTeam, our BIG idea for change here

Get in touch, if you think you can help…

We are looking for schools and partners who share our vision and can help us pilot CanTeam at scale.