Education Matters

October 16 is World Food Day which gives parents and schools an opportunity to consider world hunger and how sometimes we can all be guilty of taking food for granted.

Hunger and poverty are still some of the biggest problems faced by families daily around the world, and whilst many schools address this through charity days and fundraising, I believe it is equally important to teach children to value the food they have and to start to think about it in a different light.

Recently, I visited a school that was taking a ‘whole school approach’ to the problem of food waste such was the problem in their own place of learning. First they started by measuring the total amount of waste each day which gave them a final figure by the end of the week.

To do this they started a ‘waste autopsy’, dissecting the waste and separating into different categories, (recyclables, food matter etc.).

Next, weight comparisons were made (it turned out that each day the food matter waste weighed roughly the same as two year 2 children – 34kg) by the end of the week the children had wasted approximately 160kg of food. From then on, the race was on to improve on this total.

Letters were written home explaining the project and asking parents to consider food portions and children were encouraged to reduce their food waste every day. An inter-class competition was launched to see who could reduce the most.

After six weeks, total food waste was reduced by almost 50 per cent, an astounding achievement and a wonderful example of new thinking on the matter of food, waste and our attitudes toward it.

More information about food waste can be found at www.lovefoodhatewaste.com