Process and Resources
- Time: 10 minutes
- The first step for you and your classmates to complete is to learn a little more about food waste.
- You can watch the following short videos and discuss the topic with your teacher:
Food waste – an animated educational video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwS2Xc2IT_0
If you still have time and want to dive even more in the food waste topic, you can also watch:
Why not to waste food tutorial for kids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My-KFPmrwzM&t =105s
“Food Waste: The Hidden Cost of the Food We Throw Out”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ishA6kry8nc
- Time: 15 minutes (in total, to record your food waste for each day)
- Great! Now you are more aware of the difference between food loss and food waste and of the impact that food waste has on the environment.
- The next step is for you to keep a food waste diary for a week. This way, you will be more aware of your habits on food waste, and it will not be just a theoretical concept! The aim of this step is to let you appreciate the amount of food you waste within a week.
- Remember to include in your diary:
- Food that is left on the plate after a meal
- Leftovers from a takeaway meal
- Food that is left in the fridge and then thrown away for whatever reason (try to establish the reason)
- Fresh produce that hasn’t been eaten (those mouldy carrots in the veg rack or the bananas that have gone black)
- Any other foods wasted.
Use the following table to record your food waste within the week:
- Time: 10 minutes
- At the end of the week, together with your teacher, you will compare the results of your weekly diary with your classmates and you will identify common reasons for wasting the food. You can note them down if you like.
- Time: 25 minutes
- Now it’s the time for some group works! You will be divided in 5 groups of 4 students each. Within each group you will carry out an Internet research on the topic of food waste, in order to be even more acquainted on this matter. Don’t forget to write this information down! You will need it for your persuasive video!
- Please, look for:
- Definition of food loss
- Definition of food waste
- How many tons of food are thrown away in average in your country per year? And in Europe?
- What’s the country which counts more food wasted?
- What is the carbon footprint of food produced and not eaten?
- What’s the average percentage of global greenhouse gas emissions generated by food waste?
- How can you arrange the food in the fridge for a better usage?
- What is the meaning of “Best before” labelling?
- What is the meaning of “use by” labelling?
This information can be found at the following links, but the teacher can provide additional ones if he/she likes:
Food waste in Europe – statistics and facts about the problem
- https://www.eufic.org/en/food-safety/article/food-waste-in-europe-statistics-and-facts-about-the-problem
The Enormous Scale Of Global Food Waste [Infographic]
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2021/03/05/the-enormous-scale-of-global-food-waste-infographic/
Causes, Effects and Solutions to Growing Problem of Food Waste – Conserve Energy Future
Food Waste – The Nutrition Source Health
How to reduce food waste at home – Eufic
Stop food waste!
Food wastage footprint
- Time: 60 minutes
- Now it is the time to create your persuasive video to fight against food waste! We expect you to be as creative as possible!
- At first, with the whole group class and the support of your teacher, write the structure of the video project, create a script and possibly also a small storyboard. Your teacher may choose a cooperative working technique to reach this objective and should be able to involve all the students. Remember, the video should last max. 5 minutes! It will be necessary to conclude this important initial phase with a clear idea of what the video you are going to create will have to express and communicate to those who will watch it.
- What follows, is just a possibility of video production, therefore it is just an example of how you can do it and not the final proposal! Therefore, your teacher can divide the class in 4 working groups. Each group is assigned a specific task. Pupils are splitted in groups in the respect of their skills, interests and attitudes.
1)Two groups carry out video interviews (interviewer and interviewees). One group is going to be the one in charge of preparing the questions and the video shooting, while the other one is in charge of answering the questions. To answer the questions, the students appearing in the video should point out the knowledge and reflections they learnt through the previous steps of the WebQuest. It is important that the ideas they have learnt with this whole activity are clearly presented in the video. To this end, the students answering the questions must prepare their speech before the shoot. For the shooting you can use a camera or your smartphone.
1.You can ask the following interviewing questions (but you can also propose other ones if you like):
- In your opinion, why it is important not to waste food?
- What are in your opinion the benefits for the environment? And for our town?
- What can we do to recover food at school?
- What can you do to save food at home?
- Make your voice heard: In few words, convince your community, including your family and friends, not to waste food!
2.A group collects the information gathered in step 4 and prepare a PPT presentation to be shown in the video and to alternate with their mates interviews. The presentation may contain the following elements:
- Definition of food waste and food loss
- Causes, effects and solutions of food waste
- Statistics of food waste in EU
- Eventually, statistics of the food wastage in your class / in your school.
3.The last group is in charge of the post production of the video: through a freeware video editing software such as OpenShot https://www.openshot.org/download/ it will collect and gather the other groups’ contributions, including the PPT presentation, and will make the video to tackle food waste!