Students from France, Mexico and United Kingdom Recognized for Taking up Fight against Food Waste

Three student groups from France, Mexico and the United Kingdom bagged top prizes for their creative and committed efforts to reduce food waste in their schools and communities in the recently concluded Think.Eat.Save Student Challenge.

3rd Prize ($2,000) - Catherine Brogan, leader of Eat My Words

The group used creative performances, such as slam poetry, spoken word and music, to disseminate more effectively their message; employed social media extensively; and gathered produce that would have otherwise gone to waste to organize feeding events outside the school to encourage better awareness of how perfectly edible food normally gets wasted.

Food waste is a massive global problem that has negative humanitarian, environmental and financial implications and schools are a huge part of this story. In England, for example, schools throw out some 123,000 tonnes of food a year at a cost of £250 million a year. On average, an American student is responsible for 67 pounds of discarded lunch waste every school year.

Think.Eat.Save, a campaign led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the Save Food Initiative, and the UN Secretary-General's Zero Hunger Challenge, called on all students to join the fight to reduce the one third of all food that is lost or wasted globally each year. Around 470 schools and student groups from close to 80 countries took up the call.