From the Vegetable Rows to the Lunch Tray: When Lower Secondary Students Become “Food Journey Detectives”

More than 100 students from four lower secondary schools (Nghĩa Tân, Yên Hòa, Trung Hòa and Cầu Giấy B) visited a vegetable farm, picked vegetables by hand, talked with farmers, and retold the journey through their own films.

On the mornings of October 4 and 11, a very special group of “detectives” appeared among the green vegetable rows on the outskirts of Hanoi. They carried no magnifying glasses or investigation notebooks. Instead, they brought their phones, sheets of paper with prepared questions, and a great deal of curiosity. Their mission was to follow one vegetable, from the moment it was a green seedling in the soil to the moment it lands on the school lunch tray.

The field trip is part of the Nutritious School Food project, implemented by the Center for Community and Environment Initiatives Development (C&E) in partnership with Rikolto. The first session took place in Giang Biên with students from Nghĩa Tân Secondary School. The second took place at the Chúc Sơn Vegetable and Fruit Cooperative with students from Yên Hòa, Trung Hòa and Cầu Giấy B Secondary Schools.

Students Take Charge of the Story

Right from the bus ride, the students formed teams named Avocado, Tomato and Corn, and assigned roles themselves: who observes, who interviews, who films, who writes the narration. The adults stayed nearby to offer suggestions and technical support, while the questions, camera angles and messages were all decided by the students.

At the farm, each team followed either water spinach or Chinese mustard greens (choy sum), the two vegetables in season. The students looked over the vegetable rows and asked the farmers questions they had never thought to ask: Which step is the most demanding? How do you know when the vegetables are ready to harvest? What happens to the vegetables that don’t make the grade? Then they rolled up their sleeves, picked up sickles, and harvested alongside the farmers under their guidance. In the second session, students also helped pack vegetables at the cooperative, seeing firsthand how a bunch of greens is prepared before it leaves the farm.

“So Vegetables Don’t Just Appear in Our Lunch”

It was a sunny day, but no one wanted to leave the vegetable rows. With sweat on their foreheads and soil on their palms, the students began to grasp something that is hard to feel fully from a classroom.

“I used to leave my vegetables unfinished at lunch. After picking them myself today, I realized every single stem takes so much care.” – [Student name, grade, school]

“The farmers get up so early and work under the sun, yet they still cheerfully showed us how to cut the vegetables. I’m really grateful to them.” – [Student name, grade, school]

More than a day out, the trip gave the students a chance to see school meals in a new light. Having learned how many steps a vegetable goes through before reaching the lunch tray, many of them promised themselves to finish their share of vegetables and to be more mindful about leaving food uneaten.

Films That Retell the Journey

After the trip, each school turned what they had seen, heard and done into a recap video titled “The Journey of Vegetables from Farm to Table.” About a week later, the videos were submitted. They contain frames full of soil and sunlight, the simple answers of the people who grow the vegetables, and heartfelt closing words from the students themselves.

One Bunch of Vegetables, Many Hands

What stays with the students after the two field trips is more than knowledge about how vegetables are grown and harvested. It is also respect for the people behind every meal: the farmers, the packers, the transporters, and the cooks at school.

For the students, this trip was a lesson that no textbook contains. Every bunch of vegetables on a lunch tray carries the effort of many people, and the best way to say thank you is to value every meal.

The program is part of the Nutritious School Food project, funded by Rikolto and implemented by C&E together with pilot lower secondary schools in Hanoi.