Food: Too Good To Waste Challenge (6 hours)
sponsored by The Kroger Co.
Responsible Consumption and Production
SKILLS DEVELOPED
Collaboration, Communication, Problem solving, Information literacy, Initiative
SUMMARY
Reflection
Overall my family wasn't able to decrease food waste, but we definitely learned new strategies to do so. For us, this included buying less and specializing what types of fruits and vegetables we bought, cooking salads and juices from soon-to-expire fruits and vegetables, and eating a wide variety of foods at every meal.
Project Impact
6 weeks of food waste recorded in weight and volume. A total of 18.11 lb and 7.8 gal recorded. Due to implemented strategies, an initial decrease of 52% in weight and 65% in volume before a relapse in week 6.
PROJECTS TASKS
Project Kickoff
1.00 hour leading an initiative | Curiosity
Set up two boxes in two households lined with plastic bags to collect food waste, labelled them, and started throwing in food waste.
Week 1 Food Waste Measurement
1.00 hour leading an initiative | Curiosity
Recorded waste from two households for preventable and non-preventable.
Week 2 Food Waste Measurement
0.50 hours leading an initiative | Curiosity
Measured the non-preventable and preventable wastes for one household, and logged it. Calculated and logged the average volume and weight into the sheet, noticed specific patterns
Food Waste Education
1.00 hour leading an initiative | Curiosity
Family ideas for lessening food waste such as buying only fast-consumed fresh foods, starting a compost pile, cooking foods from soon-to-be-expired fruits and vegetables such as vegetable salad and fruit juice mix. I wrote down ideas.
Week 3 Food Waste Measurement
0.50 hours leading an initiative | Curiosity
Weighed out and measured volume of week 3 of food waste measurement project, and wrote down what helps to reduce food waste. Much less food waste now, and everything is composted.
Week 4 Food Waste Measurement
0.50 hours leading an initiative | Curiosity
Weighed out non-preventable and preventable food waste, there is now very little preventable food waste. All unpreventable goes to compost and into garden, or fed to animals. Noted down strategies that help lessen food waste: eating variety of food at meals, and things that increase food waste: buying food in bulk b/c it's cheaper. A single uneaten cabbage tipped the scales at 3 lbs. There is an error on the sheet. Instead of 2.4 lbs, the true weight is 5.8 lbs, due to the cabbage.
Week 5 Food Waste Measurement
0.50 hours leading an initiative | Curiosity
Measured and weighed out week 5 food waste, amounting to 2.4 lb and 0.8 gal. Fresh foods are the most critical in terms of lessening food waste, as they can't be stored for long. We will be buying less of them and being more selective about which ones we buy.
Week 6 Food Waste Measurement
0.50 hours leading an initiative | Curiosity
Unusually high level of waste because we celebrated an occasion, resulting in more consumption of foodstuffs such as bread, cider, and cake, while less consumption of fresh foods like vegetables and fruits. 6.4 lbs and 1 gal.
Project Summary
1.00 hour leading an initiative | Curiosity
Created an infographic that I shared with friends and family on the weight and volume of our food waste. We discussed and clarified strategies we could use to decrease food waste. I calculated the average volume and weight of our food waste weeks 3 - 6, and these were: 0.96 gal, 3.1 lb.