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The Eativerse concept has been created to make food exciting and engaging for primary schoolchildren and seeks to combine the practicalities of feeding and caring for children with the creation of an educational platform.

Robin Givens, managing director of contracts for Elior UK, explains: “We were keen to update our primary school concept and simultaneously support schools with embracing their focus on food. Our concept is fun, modern and most importantly, educational. Eativerse has pioneered a shift in the focus of primary school catering to become more relevant for children aged 4-11 and their increasing awareness of the world around them.”

The Eativerse features three planets including Planet Green (sustainability), Planet Boost (health & well-being) and Planet Focus (learning & development). Each planet tells a different story about food and its impact on our lives.

Planet Green teaches children about the impact of food on the environment and encourages them to make informed meal choices. Children are the future and these decisions will have long-term benefits for our own home planet.

Planet Boost centres on keeping healthy through good nutritional habits and plenty of physical activity. The focus here is looking after both the physical and mental well-being of children in primary education, and ensuring they continue to carry out these practices in the years that follow.

Planet Focus has been designed to encourage children to develop their understanding and appreciation of food, the role it plays in communities around the world, and its impacts. Through Planet Focus, pupils are encouraged to learn about global cuisines, try out recipes for themselves and learn something new.

The concept took several months to develop and it was then trialled at Ormiston South Parade Academy in Grimsby. Taylor Shaw says that after the successful trial they are aiming to roll the concept out to an estimated 50 primary schools over the next 12 months.

Taylor Shaw supplies schools with supplementary material around each planet theme for use in assemblies, in the classroom and parent communications. The concept is supported by a marketing calendar from which schools can select campaigns to be involved in.

Michal Seal, marketing & corporate communications director for Elior UK, adds: “As well as carrying out research into the market, we also worked closely with our team of operators and focus groups to create the Eativerse, ensuring that we are not only creating an innovative concept that functions as effectively as possible but also one that engages our teams, schools and pupils.  

“We came up with the Eativerse by identifying trends that resonated with Generation Alpha such as space and gaming, and let our imaginations take us from there. We created a planetary system all about food, developed characters to journey through it with pupils and identified the key messages we wanted to communicate through the concept.

“Ensuring we are focussed on sustainability and the environment, healthy eating and physical activity, and learning & development with an emphasis on food as our key themes were pivotal to the success of the concept.”