Full of beans – beans and pulse campaign

Are you ready to be full of beans? Do you know your lentil from your broad bean? Are you aware of how good beans and pulses are for you and for the world around you?

We’re on a mission to help everyone discover how amazing beans and pulses are. They may be small, but they are mighty! They are super for our bodies, great for the planet, affordable, convenient and delicious too!

The Full of Beans campaign is on hand to showcase the wonders of our beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas, and more.

Birmingham is developing a multi-strand campaign to increase consumption of beans and pulses in schools, with families and in food businesses. Our first intervention will focus on increasing beans and pulses consumption of up to 4,200 children attending 70 of the Holidays Activities and Food Programme holiday clubs during the summer holidays.

We will have many more “bean-tastic” campaign projects, opportunities, and interventions that will go live throughout the year so keep your eyes peeled for the endless “pulsabilities” that the Full of Beans campaign will bring!

Check out our Whisk communities to find our Full of Beans recipes, in collaboration with the British Dieticians Association. Search “fob” to see all the different recipe communities from affordable recipes to recipes for large gatherings and so much more. The Full of Beans recipes are really showcasing beans and pulse recipes for everyone and for all occasions (even a yummy sweet lentil muffin). See how many different types of recipes you can try and you’ll be a “Legume Master” in no time!

If you would like to get more involved with the Full of Beans campaign, or deliver Full of Beans interventions in your business, school, children and young people centre – email us at FoodSystemPH@birmingham.gov.uk.

The importance of beans and pulses

• Aligns with the objectives of the Birmingham Food System Strategy
• Good for health and nutritious, and unprocessed
• Good for the environment because of carbon
• Good for the environment because of improving soil quality
• Can be canned or dried so is good for resilience when there are supply chain shocks
• Adaptable for different cultures and cuisines
• Affordable
• Can be purchased in different forms including fresh, canned, cartons, jars, frozen or dried

Page last updated: 29 August 2023