Students watch a fun video about how to avoid food waste such as planning, food storage, cooking only what you need, and recycling – such as compost or food organics collection services. Create a poster and role play.

Learning objective

Students learn about the choices they have and actions they can take to stop wasting food and resources.

Curriculum links

Humanities and Social Sciences: Skills 

Questioning and researching
Analysing

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability

General capabilities

• Literacy
• Numeracy
• Ethical understanding
• Critical and creative thinking
• Personal and social capability

Key words

Food waste, avoidance, recycle, compost

Background information

Some food waste is unavoidable, such as banana skins and apple cores, but sometimes edible food, such as sandwiches and whole fruit, are also thrown out.

Wasting food has a significant impact on our resources. When we waste food, we waste the resources used to grow it, such as water, soil, and energy. All the energy used to process, package and transport food to our homes is also wasted. The estimated annual cost of food waste to the Australian economy is $20 billion (National Food Waste Strategy 2017).

Resources required

Access to YouTube video and PowerPoint

Activity

• Watch Waste Aware UK Make Food history (2:55 minutes) www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVkaYxJDqmI
• Brainstorm steps to reducing food waste at home:
  • plan ahead
  • store correctly – freeze, store fruit and vegetables properly
  • cook what you need
  • recycle what you cannot eat (compost [including Bokashi], worm farming).
• Investigate the alternatives to throwing away food scraps – put in worm farms, compost bins, or feed to chickens.
• Divide the class into groups to further explore each solution discussed in question two.
• Create a poster or a PowerPoint presentation showing tips on how to avoid food waste.
• Groups could present to the rest of class or act out a time in history, as in the video clip

Taking it further

Students plan their own weekly menu, write a shopping list, and calculate the total cost.