Education material package on food waste reduction in primary and secondary schools

Overview

The causes of food losses and waste in medium and high-income countries mainly relate to consumer behaviour. In particular, lack of awareness and insufficient purchase planning by consumers, in combination with often-careless attitude, result in large amounts of food being wasted. Thus, without targeted interventions for prevention and reduction of food waste at consumer level, the efforts towards sustainable food systems will always be undermined.

Recognizing that children are future consumers that will shape the food waste scenario and investing in their education to reduce food waste will help in creating a culture of change, required to stem the waste and loss problem now and in time to come. In that context, FAO and the International Food Waste Coalition (IFWC) joined forces to develop the “Do Good: Save Food” series of teaching manuals targeted to children and young people of four different age groups.  The guides seek to promote awareness of the economic, social and environmental consequences of wasting food, advantages of preventing food waste, actions that children can take to reduce food waste and good habits that they can develop and introduce to their friends, families and communities to reduce food waste.

FAO in Europe and Central Asia and IFWC invite all interested parties to collaborate on reducing food waste across the region through launching a targeted education programme for children at primary and secondary schools. The “Do Good: Save Food” education materials and a proposed dissemination strategy are presented here for consideration and potential application.