23 students. 1 cafeteria. A project reaching top 15 out of 23,000 participants in Europe
What if your school lunch break could teach you where food actually comes from? At Swiss International School Regensburg, students didn’t just dream about change - they built it.
Meet MensaProject: a complete reimagination of the school cafeteria, turned into a lively community space. Think cozy lounge corners, a student-run shop (yes, run entirely by students every lunch break), and the key feature - GreenBeen: indoor farming beds growing real vegetables right at the cafeteria entrance.
To get a better understanding of the project, we interviewed Nick, head of the Student Council and initiator of GreenBeen:
What is GreenBeen exactly about?
GreenBeen is an autonomous, educational farming system designed for schools. It helps students learn about sustainability while reducing food waste. By growing vegetables directly inside the school, it gives children a daily, hands-on connection to how food is produced — something many take for granted.
Where did the idea come from?
As part of the student council, we noticed how disconnected many students are from food and nature. It’s not just a problem, it’s a bottleneck that is not that hard to fix. Combined with my personal experiences growing up in Ukraine, this inspired our shared vision — to reconnect students with nature to make sustainability not the exception, but the default.
Did you implement the project independently?
Yes! We led the project ourselves and secured funding from JugendHILFT, which helped us purchase planting systems and equipment for the cafeteria. Our work was also recognized as one of the top 24 youth-led projects in Germany. We’re incredibly grateful to our SIS Regensburg for providing space throughout this journey
Besides the grant from JugendHIlFT, we’re proud to share that our student-driven initiative ranked Top 15 out of 23,000 participants in the Blue Ocean Competition across Europe!
This is what happens when young people are given space to lead.
#SISSwissInternationalSchool #InternationalEducation #SISRegensburg #GreenBeen #StudentLeadership
Author: Nikita Berozin, student at SIS Regensburg