Joint promotion for increasing local incomes

The project arose when the FLAGs identified a common challenge in two different regions of the country: the lack of local awareness of fisheries products from inland areas made life difficult for inland fishers living on very low incomes. The gastronomic wealth of the local areas also needed to be promoted to tourists in both Opole and Małopolska regions.

The FLAGs from both areas, therefore, launched a joint campaign which created a critical mass while also reducing costs. The plan included collaborating with local restaurants to incorporate local freshwater species into their menus as well as supporting educational activities (e.g., lesson plans and teaching aid for schools) aimed at encouraging the consumption of local fish among children and youth. Different parts of the programme were implemented by the respective FLAG with the most relevant experience, and combined the two FLAGs promoted the consumption of local traditional high-quality products across their areas.

The activities carried out included:

• Staff from 10 restaurants trained (five per region), and provided with new menus based on local fish

• 12 training sessions for students and teachers from cooking schools on preparing dishes based on local species

• Six culinary workshops for the general public on the preparation of dishes based on local fish

• 46 outdoor lessons about fish and the natural heritage at the ponds for school pupils

• Development of educational material, such as four types of lesson plans for teachers, a memory game with local species, books with descriptions of local birds and plants and colouring pages for younger children.