Last Thursday, our Grade 4-6 students took part in a joyful and eye-opening series of workshops on Food Sustainability and Combating Food Waste in Jordan, conducted in partnership with AIESEC in Jordan as part of the global Food Heroes initiative. 

Learning by Doing: AIESEC x Waldorf 

The Food Heroes program is a worldwide collaboration between AIESEC, Worldchefs, and the Electrolux Food Foundation, created to inspire children to make more sustainable food choices and to help the world reach the UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 — halving global food waste by 2030. 

In Jordan, the initiative is implemented locally by AIESEC’s youth members, who gain leadership experience by delivering projects that connect global goals with local communities. For our Waldorf students, that meant spending the morning learning through storytelling, games, and hands-on creative activities about where food comes from, how our choices affect the planet, and what simple changes each of us can make to reduce waste. 

The sessions were led by guest facilitators from AIESEC in Jordan working alongside our own teachers, and filled our classrooms with the kind of energetic curiosity that defines Waldorf learning: inquiry through experience, reflection through art, and action rooted in care for others and for the Earth. 

Sustainability as a Living Value 

Our participation in the Food Heroes project is one expression of the Waldorf School of Jordan’s broader commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to nurturing global citizenship in our students. Sustainability at Waldorf is not a theme for one week or one project—it is an ethic that runs through our curriculum, our festivals, our campus culture, and our partnerships. 

We are proud that the Waldorf School of Jordan is a member of the Global Schools Program, an initiative of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). Through that membership, our teachers integrate the SDGs into daily classroom practice, ensuring that students see the direct connection between what they learn and the world they are helping to build. (You can read more about our Global Schools membership here.) 

From Awareness to Action 

As our students reflected on the day’s activities, many wrote pledges to take home—promising to plan meals more carefully, finish what’s on their plate, and share what they’ve learned with their families. Each small act of awareness adds up to a larger change in culture and consciousness. 

We extend our gratitude to AIESEC in Jordan and its passionate team for choosing our school as a partner in this global movement, and to our teachers for weaving these experiences seamlessly into our students’ learning journeys. 

At Waldorf, we believe that the future depends on the habits and values we cultivate in childhood. This week’s Food Heroes workshops reminded us that leadership begins not with grand gestures, but with small, mindful choices—one meal, one student, one act of care at a time.