During a recent Eco Committee meeting, we met with our canteen staff and canteen staff manager to see our food waste recycling programme with ReFood in action. Our ReFood subscription in the last academic year accounted for 25 food waste bins collected, totalling 420 Kg of food waste, which then created 113 kW of energy and 0.19 tonnes of CO2 saved.
Activity description
In your quest to cut down lunchtime food waste, your lunchtime staff are possible your most valuable allies.
Start by chatting to them about why you want to take action on food waste. You can tell them some facts, such as ***Between 33-50% of all food produced globally is never eaten, and the value of this wasted food is worth over $1 trillion!*** or ***When food waste goes to landfill, which is where the vast majority of it ends up, it decomposes without access to oxygen and creates methane, which is 23x more deadly than carbon dioxide!***
Ask them how they see the food waste situation at your school. We have provided some sample questions to get you started but please do ask any other questions you think are important. Make sure you arrange a time to meet with them when they are not busy preparing lunch for the pupils - mid afternoon is usually a good time to catch them.
For what reasons do you throw food away? I.e. made too much, left on children’s plates, burnt/undercooked/cooking problem, gone off
How much non-edible food do you throw away (inedible skins, damaged, eggshells etc.)?
What happens to food when it gets thrown out?
How do you already control food waste in the school kitchen?
Who chooses what goes on the menu?
What do you do with leftovers?
Do some menu items have more waste than others?
Which class/ group in the school has the most food waste? Why do you think this is?
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