Can a card game change how children think about food – and how they eat?

Across Kenya, researchers and partners are asking a question that classrooms don't often get to ask: what if children weren't just taught about agriculture and food systems, but trusted to help fix them?

The CGIAR Science Program on Multifunctional Landscapes (MFL SP) is testing that idea in schools, treating them not as places where knowledge simply flows from adults to children, but as hubs where young people investigate real food system problems, come up with innovative solutions, and work alongside their families and farming communities to sustainably transform the landscapes they live in. The result is Food Heroes, a comic, a collective card game, and a research-led learning approach built around a simple question: can play change how children understand food, nutrition, and biodiversity?