The second “Grow with Fish” campaign kicked off in late September with the goal of repeating the success of last year’s campaign. This time around, all the open days for visits have been filled and it is expected that more than 5,000 students from 100 Catalan schools will take part in the initiative, promoted by the Fish Wholesalers’ Association (GMP) in collaboration with Mercabarna, designed to promote knowledge about and the consumption of fishery produce among children.

These good forecasts are based on the campaign’s success last year, when around 5,500 students took part. The schools that participated also showed a high degree of satisfaction with the initiative, valuing the excellent work of the education officers, the teaching material, the exhibition spaces (the Interactive Fish Centre and a seafood nursery) and the fish dishes served to the children.

A campaign that makes an impact
One of the goals of “Grow with Fish” is to encourage fish consumption among the families of the children taking part. The children's families were asked to complete surveys before and after the visit that indicated whether they had modified their purchasing habits and were eating more fish. The surveys were designed to find out the impact of the campaign.
The results revealed that around 20% of the families polled ate more fish after the children took part in “Grow with Fish”. The same percentage mentioned that they noticed their children were now less reticent about eating fish or trying new fish species. A further interesting fact is that, following the visit to Mercabarna, some families tried out new fish recipes and 10% said they tried new species.