BBC award winning chickpea project promotes British values

BBC News

17-03-2025

"Imagine you are a chickpea," says the speaker. A hall full of children at John Henry Newman primary school in Oxford are eagerly listening. "Would you rather be in a soup, a salad, or a Noah's pudding?"This is not a cookery lesson, but a scheme which teaches children about the values of equality, diversity and inclusion. The initiative, called Life of a Chickpea, is now planning to expand after it won a BBC Make a Difference award. It was devised by Mahmut Gunaydin, who leads the Oxford branch of The Dialogue Society, a charity which promotes social cohesion. He was awarded the BBC Radio Oxford Community Award for his work. Nominations are currently open for the 2025 BBC Make a Difference Awards.
Stacked up to the side of the hall are piles of Noah's puddings. The pudding is a mixture of 10 different ingredients - as well as chickpeas, it includes pomegranates, apples, apricots and barley. The Life of a Chickpea programme uses the pudding as a metaphor for society. "The pudding shows we can be different but come together without losing our shape, our taste, our identity," explains Mahmut. Life of a Chickpea also tries to reinforce British Values, which have been a core part of the school curriculum since 2014. Eleven-year-old Jesse is among the pupils listening."It told us that the Noah's pudding expresses all five British values, because although all the ingredients are different, they bring the best out in each other."Siddiqa, 10, recounts the story of where the pudding came from."On Noah's ark, they all got very hungry after surviving the flood, and they just got every food that they had and they put it together to make the Noah's pudding."Mahmut explains that the story is known in a number of religions. "It's in The Quran, Bible and Torah," he says.
The session is led by volunteers from The Dialogue Society, but children also get to hear from faith leaders, on this occasion from the Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communities."It was great for the children to see leaders from all different types of faiths," teacher Klarisa Dani says."I think children often view them as separate religions and actually they do all come together and share a similar belief."Mahmut won the BBC Make a Difference Award in September. "After that recognition, our Life of a Chickpea project had more impact in the region," he says."We've had more schools wanting to be involved in the project in Oxford, and we are planning to expand throughout Oxfordshire."Session over, and Jesse, Siddiqa and their classmates are taking home with them valuable lessons - and the best bit, their Noah's puddings.
The Make a Difference Awards recognise people, across eight different categories, who are making a difference where they live.Every BBC Local Radio station will host awards in 2025.It is a chance to say thank you to people who make life better for others.Nominations can be made via the BBC Make a Difference website where you can also see full terms and the privacy notice.Nominations close on the 31st March 2025 at 17:00.
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