When I first approached some of my colleagues about the creation of a city-wide bean-based campaign back in late 2023, the idea was often met with laughter followed by bean-based jokes. Fast forward to 2026, and the mood is quite different, with more people doing pulse-based research and new organisations running their own bean campaigns, which is inspiring to see.
The Full of Beans campaign ran in Glasgow between January and October 2024 with the overall aim of highlighting the multiple benefits of beans and pulses and to get people involved in growing, cooking and eating beans as part of a healthy, planet-friendly diet. Our small but passionate team had a minimal budget to run the campaign, so we relied heavily on our existing partners and stakeholders to help us.
We were fortunate to have teamed up with the global ‘Beans is How’ campaign which allowed us to use some of their campaign materials, and the Oxford-based BeanMeals public health research intervention was happy to share their learning and resources. Locally, we partnered up with Greencity Wholefoods wholesaler, Glasgow Seed Library, Slow Food Glasgow, Soil Association’s Food for Life, Glasgow City Council and local catering colleges to help us deliver the campaign.
With our limited resources, we managed to create a campaign web-page, social media content, a webinar, a podcast, flyers and campaign toolkits. During the campaign we worked with communities, schools, caterers, restaurants, growing spaces and the general public. We put on cookery, growing, educational and craft sessions and events, created recipe cards, and ran competitions.
Our efforts led to over 44K reach on social media, nearly 500 people taking part in live campaign events and activities, eight restaurants putting beans on the menu, and the Glasgow City Council Catering Team creating new bean-based dishes that are now available to 37,000 primary and secondary school pupils daily. The University of Glasgow also endorsed the campaign after it was officially over and now serves a bean/pulse-based dish daily at its main catering outlet for students.
Our team managed to get the campaign evaluated with funding from Scottish Alliance for Food (SCAF), which was important for determining the success or the campaign and for making recommendations for the future. Overall, participants found the campaign informative and engaging; however, the research also highlighted a few barriers to bean consumption, such as lack of exposure to beans and lack of skills to cook them. Beans seem to be associated more with migrant cultures and groups or with vegetarian or vegan diets. The recommendations from the evaluation included creating opportunities for cultural knowledge exchange, which led to organising community sessions to co-create a culturally appropriate bean-based recipe book last summer.
Other recommendations from the report included prioritising hands-on experiences (cooking or growing) and more support for bean growers as our bean trials did not go according to plan due to a very wet summer 2024.
Although the campaign is officially over, the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow is currently looking into the longer-term effects of the campaign to see how campaign partners/stakeholders implemented messages post-campaign. Going forward, our team is open to supporting any bean-based work locally and/or nationally, including the Food Foundation’s ‘Bang in Some Beans’ campaign launched earlier this year.
For more information and campaign materials, please visit the campaign website.
To get in contact with our team, you can email us: shw-gfpp@glasgow.ac.uk
