Reading Town Meal (RTM) is an annual event which aims to bring the local community together through food. In response to the covid-19 pandemic, the focus of this year’s event was delivering locally grown fruit and veg food boxes donated by local growers and allotment holders to households. The boxes included recipes to give people innovate ideas about how to reuse food that would otherwise go to waste.
Dr Andrew Ainslie took part at the event and gave a talk about how we can act and inspire others to reduce food waste effectively and sustainably.
He discussed the causes and impact of food loss and food waste and asked people to reflect on their personal contribution to the problem and how to gain practical ideas on reducing food waste at home and how to be an agent of change on a personal, community, and national level.
Dr Simona Grasso and Natalia Mansilla gave a presentation on the new EIT Food funded MOOC “From Waste to Value: How to Tackle Food Waste”
The presentation went through the MOOC content, providing some practical tips on how citizens cab act and inspire others to reduce food waste effectively and sustainably. The main topics which are part of the course and discussed at the event are:
-Discover the causes and impact of food loss and food waste, the effect of common retail practices on food loss and reflect on your personal contribution to the problem.
-Explore the potential of the waste hierarchy and the circular economy providing a framework for solutions to this issue.
-Discover innovations such as upcycled food and hear from companies that are making a difference.
-Gain practical ideas on reducing food waste at home and how to be an agent of change on a personal, community, and national level.
The session ended with a Q&A session where some of the points from the slides were further discussed.
These topics are part of a new, free online course From Waste to Value: How to Tackle Food Waste launching on 16 Nov 2020, funded by EIT Food and developed by the University of Reading in collaboration with other partners.
For more information, see: FutureLearn – From Waste to Value: How to Tackle Food Waste