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We’re all guilty of throwing away food from time to time, even though we know it’s not good for the environment. Food waste can have a serious impact on the planet but the solutions to preventing it in our own homes are relatively easy. It takes time, commitment and practice, but together we can swap our old habits for better ones.
Below you will find resources related to the issue of food waste and lots of simple times for how to prevent it.
5-week food waste activity pack
Did you know?
For every 5 bags of food we buy, 1 will be thrown away! The average family in the UK spends around £730 per year on food that will never be eaten; for an individual, it’s £210. [Source: WRAP]
For every 5 bags of food we buy, 1 will be thrown away! The average family in the UK spends around £730 per year on food that will never be eaten; for an individual, it’s £210. [Source: WRAP]
Food waste
Here you will see a resource pack by the Young People’s Trust for the Environment, which explores questions such as ‘why do we waste so much food?’, ‘what are the impacts of food waste?’ and ‘what can we all do to help reduce food waste?’.
The pack contains a lesson plan and a PowerPoint.
External source: Transform Our World
Handy videos
A quick video with a breakdown on UK food waste statistics, aimed at older children.
External source: Insinkerator
Here's a short video introducing the topic of food waste, aimed at younger children.
External source: Milton Keynes City Council
Did you know?
1.6 billion potatoes are thrown away every year in the UK! [Source: Small Change Big Difference]
1.6 billion potatoes are thrown away every year in the UK! [Source: Small Change Big Difference]
Lunchtime Crunchtime
The Pod have created this lesson plan, helping you to get students involved and interested in waste reduction and sustainability. Making a difference to the amount of food waste that your school produces could help reduce costs and carbon.
Below there are two lesson plans designed for KS1 and KS2:
External source: The Pod
Food waste assembly
Better Planet Education have designed this handy assembly on food waste, which includes a PowerPoint and presenter’s script.
It demonstrates why food waste is a global issue, how this relates to what we do in our homes, and actions we can all take to reduce our wastage. It’s a great way to localise the issue and get children thinking about what they can do themselves to take actions to benefit the planet.
External source: Better Planet Education
5-week food waste activity pack
Groundwork have produced the 'Yes to taste, no to waste' 5-week activity pack which is designed to be an extended project for a class to investigate and improve the state of food waste produced by the school.
Each session can be done as a stand-alone if you don’t have the time to conduct the full plan. For example, it has great resources on how to conduct a food waste audit (see below) which is a fun and insightful activity to get the kids involved with.
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Vege-Pals
Did you know?
In 2021 the UK generated over 9.5 million tonnes of food waste, with 70% coming from households... That amount of food could fill 190 Royal Albert Halls! [Source: Materials Recovery]
In 2021 the UK generated over 9.5 million tonnes of food waste, with 70% coming from households... That amount of food could fill 190 Royal Albert Halls! [Source: Materials Recovery]
The Pod have created this fun classroom activity to raise awareness of the problems created by food waste and encourage everyone to waste less food. All you’ll need is some old fruit and vegetables and lots of decorations!
External source: The Pod
Be a Food Waste Warrior
WWF have an extensive set of educator resources on food waste, which they’ve tied together under the ‘Be a Food Waste Warrior’ banner. It includes lesson plans for all key stages of education..
You might also want to consider displaying the informative Food Waste Warrior Posters to around your school, especially in the canteen, an example of which is below.
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Did you know?
Every day, we waste 20 million slices of bread, this creates greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to over 140,000 cars every year! [Source: Small Change Big Difference]
Every day, we waste 20 million slices of bread, this creates greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to over 140,000 cars every year! [Source: Small Change Big Difference]
Tackling food waste at home
We've got lots of handy tips to help reduce food waste in the home. We've also created this leaflet, including recipes, to get the most from the food we have and to help plan ahead to avoid waste. Get in touch if you would like copies of this leaflet to share with families in your school.