Team members of the Original Harlem Globetrotters, the world-renowned American basketball exhibition team, and a group of Rome-based schoolchildren, visited FAO headquarters as part of a campaign for healthy diets and reducing food waste.
In quickfire exchanges and displays of eye-popping court tricks, the players - Darnel “Speedy” Artis and Alex “Moose” Weekes – showed off their fun-filled athleticism, while sharing their approaches to healthy eating. They also spoke of minimizing food waste to a mixed aged group from several Rome-based schools.
Taking time out of their busy touring schedule, the Globetrotters – participating entirely pro bono - described a well-balanced diet as crucial to on-court performance. Wasting food means wasting labour and squandering finite resources, they stressed. The students then told of their own efforts to cut food waste in their school and homes. More broadly, the team-up inspired the children to think through their food choices and their lasting impact on themselves, environment, and society.
FAO distributed digital information from its Do Good: Save Food! education package, as the Globetrotters highlighted food waste’s link to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.
From FAO HQ, the Harlem Globetrotters and the young students moved onto the Palazzo dello Sport (where the Globetrotters played to a sell-out audience of 10,000 that night) for a private ‘basketball clinic’ of exuberant drills and dribbles, and rumbustious passes and throws. Slam dunk after slam dunk, the athletes again demonstrated how good nutrition fuels the body to power through games and, indeed, through life.
This was the second time the Original Harlem Globetrotters had partnered with FAO: during a tour of the Dominican Republic last year, the team visited a FAO-supported school garden and healthy school diet project and prepared a healthy meal with pupils from self-grown produce. The encounter was filmed and featured on the Globetrotters top-rated Play It Forward programme on the US TV network NBC.
Highlights
Website
Technical Platform on the Measurement and Reduction of Food Loss and Waste
Food loss and waste reduction should be seen as a way to achieve other objectives, such as improving food security and nutrition, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and lowering pressure on water and land resources. FAO's work on measurement, and its support to countries in taking action to reduce food loss and waste, is critical in tracking progress.
Learn moreHarlem Globetrotters: Play It Forward
27/03/2024
As part of the NBC show "Harlem Globetrotters: Play It Forward", Hot Rod De La Rosa and Thunder Law visited a Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) school garden project in the Dominican Republic and cooked healthy recipes with the students.
The International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste 2023
19/10/2023
The International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and waste (IDAFLW) on 29 September 2023 makes a clear call to action for public and private entities to take action to reduce food loss and waste (FLW) towards transforming global agrifood systems to contribute to achievement of the 2030 agenda.
Poster
9 Easy Tips to reduce food waste
Food is wasted because we put too much food on our plates, we buy food and don‘t eat it before it goes bad, and sometimes, restaurants or and school cafeterias serve portions that are too big. This flyer conveys key messages and tips to consumers and youth, particularly children, to reduce food waste.
Publications
Education materials on food waste reduction for children
“Do Good: Save Food!” is a series of teaching manuals targeted to children of four different age groups. They seek to promote awareness of the economic, social and environmental consequences of wasting food, advantages of preventing food waste, actions that children can take to reduce food waste and good habits that they can develop. These guides include games, worksheets, posters, lesson plans, and beyond.
Publications
Get Involved! Guide
The International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (IDAFLW) observed for the fourth time on 29 September 2022 will make a clear call to action for public and private entities, from across the food system, and consumers, to work together to cut food loss and waste to enhance the efficient use of natural resources, mitigate climate change, and support food security and nutrition.
