Food waste bothers me. I often have very interesting discussions with my pupils in lessons about this topic. Many points are raised which prepares pupils if it comes up as a topic on exam papers but also allows them to reflect on issues such as world hunger, food security and food poverty.
This is a re-blog post originally posted by @Sam_oldale and published with kind permission.
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At the end of the week in our food department we have bits and pieces of left over ingredients usually hiding at the back of the fridge. It varies each week but mostly we have odd pieces of butter, 1/4 pots of cream, a few rogue eggs, discarded bags or tubs of flour, garlic, chillies and odd pieces of fruit and vegetables. Sometimes at Christmas we use the ingredients to make dishes to give to homeless people or food banks.
Yesterday, I decided to start a Prevent Food Waste Club and asked a group of pupils if they would like to come into the food room every Thursday to use leftover ingredients to make dishes. Today, I asked staff if they would like to be added to the the Prevent Food Waste List.
The idea is that at 2.00 pm every Thursday I email staff who have signed up a photo of the dishes we make using leftovers . If they see anything they fancy they can come over between 4.00 pm and 4.30 pm to collect a product or dish. The minimum donation for a dish is 50 p or they can give whatever they think the food is worth. I had lots of supportive emails from members of staff and was delighted when quite a few appeared at my room door after 4.00pm.
The picture below shows the leftover ingredients from this week and the products we made as a result.
This is what we made:
- Apple and cinnamon crumble
- Pear and ginger crumble
- Pavlovas with fruit and cream or chocolate and cream
- A batch of pesto, feta cheese,creme fresh and olive tartlets.
- 2 large olive, sun dried tomatoes and feta Focaccia
- 5 small flavoured Focaccia
This is how much money we have raised for Action Against Hunger today:£22.50.
https://www.actionagainsthunger.org.uk/?gclid=CPK4pqqdnckCFaYSwwod8B8P2w
I had four pupils working with me. If I had a few more pupils we would have had enough ingredients to make a few quiches.
So if every food department in every school made something with leftovers every week and raised on average £10 a week that would be a lot of money raised for Action Against Hunger.
Anyone fancy joining the Prevent Food Waste Club? Together we could not only reduce food waste but also donate to a charity that fights hard to save people who are hungry. In addition, you can help your pupils practice a variety of food preparation skills, teach pupils how to be creative with leftovers, raise the profile of food education in your school and welcome other staff into your classroom for a sociable chat at the end of the week.
Yes it’s a bit of extra work but I’m usually in my classroom surrounded by pupils who are finishing off dishes or wrapping dishes to take home so it’s a pretty normal lunchtime. The added bonus is that you get that extra fuzzy feeling knowing that you are doing something to help people who are less fortunate.
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