IDAFLW 2023: FAO visited the St George’s British International School in Rome

In the spirit of the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (IDAFLW), the food loss and waste team of the FAO Food and Nutrition division coordinated a youth outreach event targeting students attending St George’s British International School in Rome.

A team of five FAO personnel (from Food and Nutrition division and Corporate Communication division) visited the school on Tuesday 3 October 2023 with the overall aim to better understand how the students view the FLW crisis and what actions, if any, they implement in their own lives and in school to minimize food waste generation. The event also provided an opportunity to disseminate easy-to-understand knowledge and raise awareness on the various issues of FLW as well as promoting the fundamentals of FLW reduction practices.

The outreach event started with an overall tour of the school campus, including a visit to the cafeteria where a food waste reduction campaign was in place that had been developed by the school and students. This campaign Involved differentiating waste to identify and better understand the levels of food wasted by the students during lunch.

Photo: © FAO/Pier Paolo Cito

Following the tour, two sessions were held with direct engagement of two different student groups from the school.

The first group included 11 senior students that are also part of an active student led youth group initiative (known as LEAP Club) that focuses on many of the issues pertinent to environmental sustainability, including food waste reduction – notably on their own school campus. A dynamic session with the student group, which included two videos (found here and here), told a story of the journey of food through the food system highlighting the true cost of food and the significant challenge that is FLW. Throughout, students had the chance to express their knowledge on the topic by answering several questions posed to them as well as sharing some of their own experiences

Photo: © FAO/Pier Paolo Cito

The second session of the event was designed to be as interactive as possible and involved 31 year five pupils that were mostly 10-11 years of age. This consisted of a short introduction into the topic of FLW, a showing of a video from IDAFLW 2022 followed by an energetic game of food waste bingo, developed as part of the “Do Good Save Food” education materials specifically aimed towards children. The intention of using the “Do Good Save Food” education materials was to inspire, encourage and at the same time, provide the understanding that will allow youth to take action in the fight against FLW. The game of bingo proved to be extremely interactive and even highlighted the good level of pre-existing knowledge junior students had when it came to household food waste generation. It is hoped that the game was an effective tool to further cement the fundamentals of food waste and the basic practices to prevent it which can then be relayed back to the household. 

Photo: © FAO/Pier Paolo Cito

To ensure the bingo cards can be reused over again for future games, as an alternative to crossing out an icon with a marker when there is a match, students would instead cover the corresponding icon with a small token that displayed one of the nine tips’ illustrations to reduce food waste.

Materials used during the event, which included the 9 easy tips to reduce food waste poster, Do Good Save Food education package, and material for food waste bingo were given to the school. More material related to Awareness raising and education can be found in the resources section of this website.

Photo: © FAO/Pier Paolo Cito

All photos are available at "Outreach event with St George International British school in Rome" photo album