At the core of education are the three R’s: reading, writing, and reasoning. But in today’s world, a fourth R is becoming just as important: Real Food Literacy. While schools equip learners with the skills to think critically and communicate effectively, few help them understand how the foods they eat affect their energy, focus, and long-term health. Nutrition is often treated as an optional extra… a brief Life Orientation topic squeezed in between lessons on hygiene and exercise. Yet in an age where ultra-processed foods dominate children’s diets and marketing shapes their choices from an early age, understanding food has become a form of literacy every bit as vital as those original three R’s.

From Textbooks to Lunchboxes: The Case for Food Literacy

Today’s children are growing up in a world where food is abundant but nutrients are scarce. Supermarket shelves overflow with products that are engineered to taste good, last long, and sell fast, but that’s where their benefits end. They are not designed to nourish young minds or grow young bodies. Teaching children to read a food label critically, to understand where their food comes from, or to spot the difference between “whole” and “processed” food is an act of empowerment.

Food literacy is not just about knowing what a carbohydrate is. It’s about thinking critically:

• Can I recognise when food marketing is misleading?
• How do I know if what I’m eating supports my long-term health?
• What does “real food” look like in my community context?

In this way, real food literacy becomes the fourth R: a foundation for lifelong wellbeing, resilience, and self-efficacy.

Teachers: The Missing Link in Real Food Education

But here’s the challenge: we can’t teach what we don’t understand.

Studies done in South Africa have found that despite an interest in incorporating more nutrition into the curriculum (1), 92% of primary school educators, across various socio-demographic characteristics, including level of education and training institution, have a poor nutritional knowledge score (2). Nutrition information taught at schools is only that which is included in the current curriculum, and very little is incorporated into any other subjects (1).

Integrating Real Food Literacy into teacher training programmes could reshape how schools nurture wellbeing. When educators understand the basics of metabolic health, the effects of ultra-processed foods on focus and mood, and simple, practical ways to encourage real-food choices, they become powerful agents of change, without adding to their already full workload.

Confident, informed teachers naturally model healthy behaviour. They create classrooms where food can be discussed openly, practically, and without shame. Nutrition need not be a separate subject; it can be woven seamlessly into existing lessons, from exploring local food systems in geography to practising budgeting skills in maths or uncovering cultural stories and traditions in language classes. In this way, Real Food Literacy becomes part of everyday learning, shaping healthier minds and communities from the ground up.

Food Literacy as Future Literacy

Real food education is not about policing lunchboxes. It’s about preparing children for a complex world where they will need to navigate food marketing, misinformation, and health challenges. Just as we equip learners to distinguish credible sources from fake news, we should help them distinguish real food from processed products.

And the ripple effects are profound. Food-literate children grow into adults who make informed choices, support local producers, and pass on healthier habits to their families. They are better equipped to understand the link between what they eat, how they feel, and how they function, at school, at work, and in life.

Building a Culture of Real Food Learning

Integrating real food education into schools doesn’t have to mean new subjects or costly programmes. It starts with small shifts:

• Embedding nutrition principles into existing curricula.
• Providing teachers with simple, evidence-based resources.
• Encouraging experiential learning: growing herbs in the classroom, visiting a local farm, or cooking with whole ingredients.
• Partnering with initiatives like Eat Better South Africa, which translates scientific nutrition principles into practical, culturally relevant education.

By reframing nutrition as a literacy skill, we give teachers and learners the tools to question, understand, and act. Because food, after all, is not just fuel, it’s knowledge, culture, and empowerment.

In the end, the question is not whether schools have time to teach food literacy, but whether we can afford not to. 

Does your school need a real food literacy intervention?

We can help you transform your classrooms into hubs of food knowledge and wellbeing. Together, we can equip teachers with the tools to inspire healthier habits, empower learners to make informed choices, and build a lasting culture of real food education.

Get in touch with us today. Let’s start working on a plan that puts real food literacy at the heart of your school. Because when we teach food, we teach the future.

References

1. Kupolati, M. D., Gericke, G. J., MacIntyre, U. E., Ferreira, R., Fraser, W., & Du Toit, P. (Year). Nutrition education practices of primary school teachers in a resource-constrained community in Gauteng, South Africa. University of Pretoria Repository. Retrieved from https://repository.up.ac.za/server/api/core/bitstreams/2033b7d5-c2ca-4741-8936-e317cc02817e/content

1. Mbhenyane, X. G., Magoai, M. M., Mabapa, N. S., & Tambe, A. B. (2022). Nutrition knowledge competencies of intermediate and senior phase educators in Limpopo Province. South African Journal of Childhood Education, 12(1), Article a1114. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajce.v12i1.1114