Parent Pointer

Children can be very wasteful when it comes to food, we all can. How often have you emptied a half-eaten plate of food into the bin because your child didn’t like what you’d cooked or you’d made the portion too big?

We’re all busy and it’s easy to ignore such frivolousness, but when you consider the consequences of wastefulness and the amount it can hit your pocket, it’s worth taking some time to think of some strategies that reduce wastefulness and teach your child some good habits early on.

First of all ask yourself, ‘Do we really waste food in our family?’ Over a week, with your children, take the time to look at the amount of food you throw away and list the reasons why:
Past its sell by date?
Unfinished food?
Bought too much so it went off?
Child didn’t want it?

Once you start to realise how much food you waste, you can start to resolve the problem and encourage our children to become more responsible with food. Children like to be involved in household decisions, so by involving them in a change in attitudes to food they can learn important life skills early on.

Some examples of effective food use can involve:
Asking your child which fruit and vegetables they prefer, (giving them the choice between different types of vegetable for example means that veg will still be part of their daily diet and they will be more likely to eat it because they chose it and it will be less likely to go off).

Give them a smaller portion and explain that they can have more when they have eaten what is on their plate, (minimising the likely likelihood of wasting food because portions are too big).

Planning meals for the week together and going shopping together to help them understand the cost of food and how much can be saved when we start to become more food savvy, (savings can, of course, be used for rewards at a later date).

Food waste is becoming a global concern so by teaching children important lessons early will of course serve them well into the future.