Info Session – Appetite for Waste Erasmus+ youth exchange in Kaunas

Contents  Sample  Knowledge assessment  Food waste  Laws/regulations  Packaging  Initiatives  Conclusions  Action groups

Sample (36 participants)  Median age: 22.5  Male/female ratio: 52% males against 48% females  Self-grade for current knowledge: 5.07

Food waste Every food product that is grown/produced but not eaten

Not all food is accepted for sale  Food grown (e.g. apples) may not have the standard shape, colour, etc.  Therefore food producers make more food than necessary (to compensate for the unaccepted)  Reasons mentioned by you – right  Reasons mentioned by you - wrong

Supermarkets do not sell all the shelved food  Such food (e.g. after due date) is usually & continuously thrown out as garbage  Some may be given to charities (e.g. Food Bank)  Your mention – right  Your mention - wrong

Food also wasted pretty much everywhere: At restaurants, canteens, bakeries, specialised shops, markets, family tables, BBQs & so on and so forth

How many of you were close?

How to save more food (4 Rs)? 1. Reduce food waste 2. Recycle wasted food 3. Reuse the leftovers 4. Redistribute unused food How to do that?

Laws / regulations  Banning supermarkets destroying unsold food, instead obliging them to give it to charities  Passed in France (May, 2015)  Giving support for supermarkets, other businesses and charities involved in food saving  Your mentions

Special food packaging  a label which is attached to food packaging and changes shape when the produce is no longer good  Much more reliable than the due date

Special packaging  Food packaging discouraging food waste (alike cigarette pack labels)  ‘Stop food waste’, etc.  Your mentions

Other initiatives  Restaurants re-cooking used food (and then selling without a price so that homeless can eat and regular customer pay as much as they want)  Food Bank, similar charities - redistributing unwanted food to the poor  Online marketing campaigns, videos – educating people & discouraging food waste  Your mentions

Conclusions  Food waste is a huge problem, however there are solutions  Our knowledge is far from absolute  Therefore we are going to work to:  increase our expertise on the topic  Find and propose ideas/solutions

Action groups (from day 1)  Group 1  Group 2  Group 3  Group 4  Group 5  Group 6

Your presentations  Day 4 Wednesday (August 5 th )  Latvia  Romania  Croatia  Day 5 Thursday (August 6 th )  Lithuania  Italy  Poland

Task (20 min)  In the action groups choose one of the 4 R’s (one R may be chosen at most twice): i. Reducing food waste ii. Recycling wasted food iii. Reusing the leftovers iv. Redistributing unused food 1. Think what grand initiative/strategy would encourage people to do so (your chosen R)? 2. What would be the benefits if people were doing so? 3. Draw everything on a big sheet of paper. There are no limits this time – so be creative