CanTeam at North Durham Academy
Blog co-written by Eddie, Kaitlin, Charlie, and Leighton, student volunteers and team leaders of the CanTeam Crew at North Durham Academy.
Introduction
“CanTeam is an event hosted by students inside school for everyone to try different foods and get involved in the community and grow as a whole. I found it extremely different to anything I’ve ever done before as it was hosted by students for students! I was in charge of PR and advertising which involved creating signs and helping with the quiz and bingo.”
“CanTeam is a community that involves people, families and primary schools to make new bonds and try nutritious food to see if they could try it again in the future. In my opinion my favourite part was talking to people and making new bonds.”
“The whole point of CanTeam is to get everyone to come together, to see people with a lot of people, and finding out what they thought was best and what they thought of the food and the service.”
“CanTeam is a place for everyone to eat for free and have fun.”
My CanTeam Journey
“As a whole the experience has helped a lot more with talking to customers and clients and people in genera, and will be extremely useful in college and job applications.”
“The skills I have developed are communication, team working skills, problem solving skills and my ability to be a leader. The biggest thing from the event was trying new food.”
“I thought it was a great thing for people to come together, and I have developed confidence. My communication skills and my ability to work and lead as a team have improved.”
“How to give people their food and do speeches.”
Final Thoughts:
“100%, it is extremely good for building confidence”
“In the future, I would talk to more people and not be scared to make new friends. For other people, I would recommend to try new food and enjoy moments with family and friends.”
“In the future, I would get live music and maybe people to dance so they will have an audience and this will help community gain more from each event.”
“It shows people their skills and help people have fun.”
Experience Summarised:
“Overall, I found the experience very unique”
“It was a new experience and I would do it again”
“In my time at CanTeam, I’ve gained a lot of my confidence.”
“An enjoyable and wonderful experience!”
Background:
CanTeam is an after-school social dining initiative co-designed with young people that encourages students, their families and local communities to enjoy nutritious and delicious food and activities together.
Launched by Future Foundations in June 2023, CanTeam aims to embed a transformative food culture within schools, enabling young people and communities to 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 Chartwells UK, Durham Council, we ran a 6-week series of CanTeam events. This followed on from a 2-day workshop led by Professor Greta at North Durham Academy exploring the Whole School Food environment, and is part of a wider set of projects, being set up and evaluated.
Click here to read an article about the series of events.
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.
Find out more:
- Read about CanTeam, our BIG idea for change here
Get in touch, if you think you can help…
- Email: jon@future-foundations.co.uk
We are looking for schools and partners who share our vision and can help us pilot CanTeam at scale.