Food Waste Event

Students at Caedmon College have learnt valuable lessons about how not to waste food and save money.

40 students from Year 7 took part in two workshops organised by our Rotary Club,in conjunction with Whitby WI and North Yorkshire Rotters.

One of the workshops involved cookery demonstrations making tasty meals from leftovers.Sue Clarke from Whitby WI showed the students how to make tomato and lentil soup with over ripe tomatoes and vegetable stir fry using vegetables often thrown away.

Rtn Nick Hutton made bubble and squeak. A great way of using leftover mash,sprouts and cabbage.

Students learnt the importance of not cooking too much in the first place and were given their own spaghetti measures and rice cups to take home to help control portion sizes.

The second workshop covered recycling and composting as well as food waste.Students were shown how to make a large wormery which helps to make compost from leftover vegetables,egg shells and paper waste.They then constructed a mini wormery to take home and look after. They also made their own smoothie by pedalling a bike to power the blender.Ripe fruit is ideal for this rather than throwing it away.

Prior to the workshops the students had kept a diary setting out what food had been wasted and why.

Student Amber Jackson said ' At first we didn't think the food was going to be very tasty but it turned out to be delicious and everyone loved it.

Anna Derham also benefited from the event saying 'Our visitors made it an enjoyable yet educational experience.We will all think twice the next time we go to throw food out.We will check we eat the oldest food first and not cook too much in the first place.

Around 7.2m tons of food is thrown away each year in the UK ith food waste costing the average family around £480 a year.