'Food is not rubbish!'

Tuesday 26 November 2019

Students at Les Beaucamps High School have been swapping their lunch for 'rubbish' as part of a campaign to cut down on the amount of food we throw away.

'The Big Feed' offered more than 500 pupils and staff a free cooked lunch yesterday, costing a total of around £800 - the average amount families in the UK throw away in food each year.

"We're trying to highlight to islanders how much money they throw away in terms of food waste," said Recycling and Waste Prevention Officer, Tina Norman-Ross. "We needed to get a group of people big enough to illustrate the number of people you can feed for the amount of £800.

"It's a message that we want to get out to families, so we thought a good way of doing that is to talk to the children, get them thinking about food waste and then they will take that home to the families."

Pictured: Students disposing of their food waste in designated caddies.

So far, the campaign has only been held at Les Beaucamps, but Guernsey Waste does have plans to roll this out at other schools across the island.

"I think it's a very good event," said Year Seven student, Lexie Osborne. "We learnt in our last PSE lesson that every time we throw away food or waste it, it's producing methane which then goes to climate change, which is causing sea rises and destroying our world.

"In 100 years' time the whole world could be nearly half underwater and I know we won't be here, but it's when we have kids and our kids' kids. They won't be able to have the good things that we have now.

"All the money they gets wasted on certain things could go towards helping children in need and people who need that stuff, rather than just wasting it."

Pictured: Students and staff taking part in the 'Big Feed'.

Fellow Year Seven student, Amy Roger, agreed: "If we know how much we're going to eat we can buy that certain amount and not waste money on food we're just going to throw away. Or, you can mix up all your leftover foods and make one meal that's really nice.

"It's just not nice to know that our generation is making climate change happen, but also we can stop it. We can stop this happening by not wasting. Everyone can have a go. It might not make a huge difference if only a few people do it, but if everyone at least tried it would help."

The children and staff were offered a range of meals from some local chefs, including pasta with garlic bread and jacket potatoes.

"It's us humans that are running the world," commented Alana Gaudion, Year Seven. "Some people are trying to take care of it and others don't really care - they don't understand what's going to happen in the future."

Pictured top: Les Beaucamps High students and staff enjoying their free lunch.