The activities started with two educational sessions in Sofia – at 37 Secondary School “Rayna Knyaginya” and the Vocational High School for Electrotechnics and Automatization. A total of 64 high school students took part. Instead of a traditional lecture, the sessions were built around discussion and real-life examples. We explored how food choices affect the environment, looking at concepts such as the carbon and water footprint of different products. Together with the students, we discussed how small changes like choosing seasonal fruits and vegetables, eating more plant-based meals, or reducing food waste can have a real impact.

The next step was to move from theory to practice.

We worked with three more schools from different parts of Bulgaria, where we combined educational sessions with online cooking workshops led by a professional chef. Each group of students took part in two cooking sessions, designed not just for them, but also for their parents. The idea was simple: to turn cooking into a shared activity and to make sustainable eating something that happens at home, not just in the classroom.

The recipes were fully plant-based, affordable, and easy to recreate. During the sessions, participants prepared dishes such as:

  • Sweet potatoes with basmati rice and cashew curry coconut sauce, served with a fresh vegetable salad
  • Rice noodles with tofu and vegetables, accompanied by an Asian-style salad

The cooking sessions were interactive - participants cooked together in real time, asked questions, and adapted the recipes to their taste and what they had available at home.

In total, 55 children from Targovishte (2nd Secondary School “Prof. Nikola Marinov”), 44 students from Graf Ignatievo (Primary School “Graf N. Ignatiev”), and 24 students from Belene (Primary School “Vasil Levski”) joined the activities together with their families.

What stood out most was the involvement of both students and parents. Cooking together created space for conversation, experimentation, and sometimes even a bit of trial and error. Many participants shared that they had never tried plant-based cooking before, but found it surprisingly delicious, accessible and enjoyable.

Through Kitchen Adventure, the focus was not only on providing information, but on building habits through showing that healthy and sustainable food can fit naturally into everyday life.