It's World Food Day today and we want a future with #zerohunger. We believe reducing food waste can help reach this goal and thought we'd share this article about what we've been doing to make a difference....
Sophie and Paul Collins haven’t been food shopping for the last four weeks. Instead they’ve been surviving entirely on food that would otherwise have been thrown away. With their ‘Food Waste Challenge’ the couple aim at raising money for three charities addressing the issue. FareShare, Feedback and FoodCycle all do work to reduce food waste and redistribute it to support people in need. Paul, who leads cooking sessions for FoodCycle Cambridge, said
“There is so much food going to waste every day, yet so many people have to suffer from hunger. I would really like to see a change for the better.”
According to the UN, one third of food produced for human consumption is wasted - approximately 1.3 billion tonnes. When food is wasted, all the resources that went into its production - water, energy and transport, are also wasted. Food waste has a large environmental footprint, accounting for 8% of global greenhouse gases, almost as much as all of the emissions from road transport. Reducing food waste can not only have a positive impact on the planet, but also on your pocket. Figures estimate that the average family wastes £700 every year by throwing away food.
So how did the couple survive their month long challenge? Sophie tells us,
“For the first week, we struggled getting enough to eat and it was hard to put a proper meal together. But then we started to find ways to access more of the food that is being wasted locally. We’ve used the food sharing app Olio, visited the Cambridge Community Fridge, eaten delicious meals at FoodCycle and rescued out of date food from our friends. Most of our fruit has come from windfalls and surplus from trees around the city.”
The couple now have so much rescued food that they are planning a fundraising feast. Paul adds,
“The challenge has made us more creative with the food we eat. We now know so many great ways to use stale bread - French Toast, Breaded Mushrooms, Garlic Croutons… that we will never throw bread away again.”
Sophie and Paul hope that by doing their Food Waste Challenge, they will inspire others to reduce their own food waste at home and hold supermarkets and suppliers accountable for the waste they produce. They want a world with a sustainable food system and zero hunger.
Read more about our Food Waste Challenge experience and check out our fun food waste reduction tips.
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