Check out our introductory video !!
" Respect for food is a respect for life,
for who we are and what we do..."
- Thomas Keller
We all love eating food !! Everyone either finds a foodie or a wonderful chef in themselves. But have you even given a thought to the food that goes into the dump just because "our stomach is full?" Did you know that nearly 690 million people sleep on an empty stomach each night? However, our small conscious effort can improve this situation and ensure that everyone gets food : your contribution could help the world. The answer to this problem is just so simple : "Save Food". Our aim is to stop the wastage of food by taking small steps with big strides. Save food, and there will be equal amounts to eat for everyone on the globe.
We took the pledge, won't you?
Save the food !!
We took the pledge, won't you?
Save the food !!
What is the difference between food loss and food waste ?
Food loss - is the decrease in the quantity or quality of food resulting from decisions and actions by food suppliers in the chain, including through on - farm activities, storage and transportation before reaching the retail level. We have about 14 % food loss on a global level.
Food waste - refers to the decrease in the quantity or quality of food resulting from decisions and actions by retailers, food service providers and consumers.
Food loss - is the decrease in the quantity or quality of food resulting from decisions and actions by food suppliers in the chain, including through on - farm activities, storage and transportation before reaching the retail level. We have about 14 % food loss on a global level.
Food waste - refers to the decrease in the quantity or quality of food resulting from decisions and actions by retailers, food service providers and consumers.
The Research
Our research is divided into 2 major parts -
1. Observing your and your family's food waste
2. Interviews
1. Observing your and your family's food waste
2. Interviews
Part 1. Observing your and your family's food waste
Each group member kept a diary for three days on how much food their family members and they wasted. After the three day observation, we were asked to implement the nine tips to prevent and reduce food waste of the FAO and International Food Waste Coalition.
Then we kept another three day diary to see how the implementation of these tips helped in reducing food wastage. Each of us rated the tips according to their usefulness in our household.
Last, we made a summary of our observations.
The following are our observations -
Then we kept another three day diary to see how the implementation of these tips helped in reducing food wastage. Each of us rated the tips according to their usefulness in our household.
Last, we made a summary of our observations.
The following are our observations -
The following are our statistics for our observations. These are graphs showing our pattern of food wasted every day.
The following are the summaries of our observations -
Summaries
Prisha - For me and my family, the tip ‘Donate the surplus’ seems to be the best and most effective. It is something that we have been doing for a long time now. Every time someone finds themselves leaving some food, or not being able to eat a specific dish, they pass it to the other family member. We have been into this since we were young and it suits us the most. Even so, we do use many other tips regularly, like ‘Understand dates’ and ‘First in, first out’. ‘Don’t be prejudiced’ is a tip that is something that our family needs to adapt to. My younger sister and I don’t like to eat food, mainly fruits, that don’t look good. We definitely need to improve and make sure to reduce food wastage even more by abiding by these tips. 'Compost' is also something that didn’t show much change as we don’t have the required products that help in composting fast. Hence, the finest tip for us was ‘Donate the surplus’.
Ojal - In our family, we generally do not waste a lot of food. In daily life, we try to take limited amounts of food in our plate. After the three day observation, we implemented the tips. We realized that most of the tips were already used in day to day life. The tips which were most useful to my family were - 'Start small', 'Buy only what you need' and 'Donate the surplus'. The tips least useful for my family were 'Don’t be prejudiced' and 'Check the fridge temperature'. We also try and compost food waste. Thus the tip 'Compost' was also useful. Overall, my family saves food and very less food is wasted.
Krishiv - Wastage of food is considered unacceptable in our family and we try to avoid food waste as much as possible. To achieve this, we already used to implement some of the tips mentioned above. The best tips in my opinion are ‘Start Small’ and ‘Donate the Surplus’. Taking small portions at home results in less wastage of food and if any food is left over, we try to donate it. We even follow the tips ‘Check your fridge’ and ‘Understand Dates’. These are very useful to understand the quality and freshness of food and are easy to understand and follow. The tip ‘First in First Out’ is also used quite often. We find the tips ‘Don’t be prejudiced’ and ‘Compost’ difficult to implement because the wastage is already low due to the implementation of other tips. This observation tells me that I have to improve and waste no food during any meal.
Mahiman - My family and I did have some food wasted and there was definitely a path for improvement here. After using the tips there was a change in the data evident. The tip that worked best for our family was Tip 4 'Don’t be prejudiced'. Using that tip showed the most effect on our data and wastage of food.
Ishaan - In the first place, there wasn’t much food wasted. Only bits of food were left by some of the members once or twice hardly. Even though the food we wasted was already very little, the implementation of tips did help in reducing food wastage more. It wasn’t so effective for my family and me but it felt good after consciously trying to save more food. It was satisfying and pleasing to know that I am taking a part in saving the environment.
We group members wrote our summaries depending on how much food we generally used to waste and how useful the implementation tips were for us. All of us have a habit of saving food by taking small portions of food to eat which can be finished by us and buying only what we need in terms of eatables. Overall, there was not a huge difference between the way we rated the implementation tips as all of us were already familiar with most of the tips and have seen how effectively they are used in our households.
Part 2. Interviews
The interviews were taken by the group members. They were conducted by all of us through the Zoom platform, WhatsApp calls and voice recordings. The interviewees were asked various questions about how they save food in their day to day life, what measures do the companies they work at take for conserving food and what, in their opinions are the best ways and techniques to save food. The people we interviewed were -
Ms. Shraddha - Supermarket manager, Madame Home
Ms. Darshana - Member of the school board
Mr. Jayandrath - Expert on food waste, Organisation - The Roti Foundation Mumbai
The following is our questionnaire for all the three interviews -
Canteen head authority :
- What happens to the food that is wasted in the canteen?
- Does the school have any food policy?
Supermarket :
- Does the supermarket have a policy for food waste?
- Is there a specific future goal in terms of food waste that the supermarket is working towards.
- What, do you think, are the best ways the supermarket can prevent or reduce food waste.
- What, in your opinion, should be done to reduce food waste in a supermarket.
Food waste expert :
- What are the effects of food waste on climate change?
- What are the most effective ways of reducing food waste?
- How does the organization manage to send food to the poor?
- How many people is the organization able to provide with food in a month?
- At what time does the organization start preparing food to deliver it to citizens?
- Has it ever happened that the food sent by the main factory didn’t reach the right location?
Ms. Darshana
Ms. Darshana is the HR head of our school, MBIS. She explained to us about the policies of food waste which our school uses. The canteen people collect all the food that is normally wasted in the canteen. The canteen organizers then give the waste to the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation). Darshana ma'am says that in terms of in-school food waste, there isn’t much waste produced. For example, the dustbins in each room will have at the most a peel of banana, or the seeds of apples. Otherwise there is no food wastage. As of now, our school does not have a food wastage policy. Before they had thought about getting compost machines but first there is no place, and second it stinks a lot and the school is an indoor place so it would become too suffocating and not really possible for people to stay there. At school, there isn’t enough manpower for them to be able to look out at composts during school hours. In the future, though, our school plans to find out more options relating to saving food. Overall, there is not much food waste produced in school, so we do not really need to take extensive measures in reducing food waste. |
Ms. Shraddha
Ms. Shraddha is the purchase manager of the supermarket Madame Home. Madame Home is a supermarket which caters to our daily needs and provides the sales of fruits and vegetables, household materials and many more. Ms. Shraddha believes that saving food is very important and needs to be done by everyone. The supermarket Madame Home currently does not have any food saving policy as such, but plans to work upon it in the near future. Madame Home makes sure not to keep any harmful or expired products. Ms. Shraddha says that customers should be more careful while buying food items and purchase only what they need. This will not only save food from getting wasted, but it will also save money. |
Mr. Jayandrath Tambe
Mr. (Jayandrath) Tambe is the Operation Manager of The Roti Foundation of Mumbai. Roti Foundation Mumbai was founded on 27th December 2017 by former Director-General of Maharashtra Police, Sri D. Sivanandhan. The aim of this Foundation is to eradicate hunger, malnutrition and to avoid food wastage in Mumbai. Their first move was to start collecting left-over food, because a lot of it was considered waste and thrown away. They attempted to save as much left-over food as possible. Food that was left over in parties, weddings and other different large-scale events, was gathered and distributed among the poor. Recently, their kitchens started preparing food for nearly 10,000 people daily.
When asked about the effects of food wastage on the environment, Mr. Tambe replied
“Waste of food is not good for the environment. 1/3 of the food made worldwide is left over, and thrown away. This waste food then pollutes the environment around us. Hence, we believe in distributing the food to the poor who sleep with an empty stomach, distributing food instead of throwing it away has many benefits. When the left-over food is thrown away it pollutes the environment and increases the probability of spreading of several diseases. Distributing the food to the poor will not only make us a step closer to achieving the UN sustainable development goal of Zero Hunger, it will keep the environment around us clean as well.”
The canteen begins early to start preparing food for people in time. The Roti Bank has been consistent, and it sends food to the right place at the right time every day.
On an average they feed 3 lakh people over a month and during the first few weeks of the pandemic and lockdown they fed more than 57 lakh people.
Mr. (Jayandrath) Tambe is the Operation Manager of The Roti Foundation of Mumbai. Roti Foundation Mumbai was founded on 27th December 2017 by former Director-General of Maharashtra Police, Sri D. Sivanandhan. The aim of this Foundation is to eradicate hunger, malnutrition and to avoid food wastage in Mumbai. Their first move was to start collecting left-over food, because a lot of it was considered waste and thrown away. They attempted to save as much left-over food as possible. Food that was left over in parties, weddings and other different large-scale events, was gathered and distributed among the poor. Recently, their kitchens started preparing food for nearly 10,000 people daily.
When asked about the effects of food wastage on the environment, Mr. Tambe replied
“Waste of food is not good for the environment. 1/3 of the food made worldwide is left over, and thrown away. This waste food then pollutes the environment around us. Hence, we believe in distributing the food to the poor who sleep with an empty stomach, distributing food instead of throwing it away has many benefits. When the left-over food is thrown away it pollutes the environment and increases the probability of spreading of several diseases. Distributing the food to the poor will not only make us a step closer to achieving the UN sustainable development goal of Zero Hunger, it will keep the environment around us clean as well.”
The canteen begins early to start preparing food for people in time. The Roti Bank has been consistent, and it sends food to the right place at the right time every day.
On an average they feed 3 lakh people over a month and during the first few weeks of the pandemic and lockdown they fed more than 57 lakh people.
Part 3. SDG Activity
The Sustainable Development Goals :
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) can be related to Saving Food in multiple ways. One of them is “Zero Hunger (Goal 2)” End hunger, achieve food security and nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. Our main goal for doing this project is to spread awareness amongst people about hunger and poverty. The interview given by Mr. Tambe can immensely justify this point. “One-third of the food made worldwide is leftover and thrown away. This wastes food that pollutes the environment around us. Hence, we believe in distributing the food amongst the poor who sleep with an empty stomach.” said Mr. Tambe. His concept of representing Roti Bank Organization associates with both Zero Hunger and “No Poverty (Goal 1)”. Another one of the interviews given to us by Ms. Shraddha Mhatre clearly mentions that both consumers and producers need to put in efforts for saving food. “We always suggest our customers to buy only what they require so that the products don’t get wasted. Our supermarket, Madame Home also makes sure to not keep any harmful or expired products in the supermarket.” Her statements connect with another sustainable goal i.e., “Responsible consumption and production (Goal 12)” Our team believes that “Partnerships for the Goals (Goal 17)” is neutralized and everyone in the group relates to it. Each and every human needs to take part in these sustainable processes. Let us all try and save food together !! |
|
Part 4. Conclusion
|
The whole project is about different ways we can save food and decrease hunger in the world. Reducing hunger is also one of the main goals in moving towards a sustainable world and us as the next generation are learning about it while spreading awareness through all these studies. We can save food by :
- Buying in small quantities that are required - Donating the leftover food to organizations like Roti Banks - Collecting and sending the food waste to BMC organizations in cases of schools, colleges, hostels, canteens and more. - Having compost in areas that will be fine. For example, in big buildings or society complexes. - Take only what you want to eat on your plate. - If you don’t want to eat something then give it to someone else who is willing to eat. - Preserving food so that it doesn’t get spoilt fast - Not being very picky about what you eat and about how nice the food looks All of the points above have been elaborated in our interviews, observations and research. Saving food at home and school are pretty much similar. Get only what you need, you can share the food with your friends/family if you don't want to eat what you got. At home you can use the kitchen waste or fruits and vegetables peels and all kinds of food waste to compost immediately. Following food policies and avoiding decaying food should be kept in mind at all times and everywhere. With this, there will be enough food for everyone to eat. The environment and saving food will together go hand in hand to make this world the best place to live !! |
Part 5. Awareness Activity
The following is our awareness activity. Our Awareness Activity is done by Ishaan.
Communication
How did we keep in touch ?
Throughout our Eumind journey, we learned a lot of new things. Group projects need teamwork, and we as a team, experienced a lot of ups and downs. Together, it made it a ton more easier to overcome obstacles, complete work on time and get the best out of each other. Everyone of us had something unique, and collaborating together was a lot of fun. Not only did we learn about each others strengths and weaknesses, we also learned what it takes to become a good team and understanding how one works and how we can help each other to complete our work. All of us already knew our team members fairly well, but this group work created a bond in all of us, resulting in the best of hard work we all could do. Our main platform of communication was Google meets, WhatsApp and emailing to each other. We would conduct a meeting before beginning a new task and discuss how things could unfold, what all we needed to complete, and who would do what.
Overall, we immensely enjoyed doing our work and put in the most efforts we could. All of us learnt new things about each other. We also got to know how a team should be managed and how we could become better team members. We cooperated with each other and most importantly, had a lot of joy working together, which made us a stronger team !!
Throughout our Eumind journey, we learned a lot of new things. Group projects need teamwork, and we as a team, experienced a lot of ups and downs. Together, it made it a ton more easier to overcome obstacles, complete work on time and get the best out of each other. Everyone of us had something unique, and collaborating together was a lot of fun. Not only did we learn about each others strengths and weaknesses, we also learned what it takes to become a good team and understanding how one works and how we can help each other to complete our work. All of us already knew our team members fairly well, but this group work created a bond in all of us, resulting in the best of hard work we all could do. Our main platform of communication was Google meets, WhatsApp and emailing to each other. We would conduct a meeting before beginning a new task and discuss how things could unfold, what all we needed to complete, and who would do what.
Overall, we immensely enjoyed doing our work and put in the most efforts we could. All of us learnt new things about each other. We also got to know how a team should be managed and how we could become better team members. We cooperated with each other and most importantly, had a lot of joy working together, which made us a stronger team !!
Comparison
Both teams had the same topic for this project so it is a given that a huge chump of the research done will be similar. All data presented were unique in their own way. The information collected by both teams were depending on where they live, their daily lifestyle, their schools and their traditions. This caused various differences between the information acquired.
Reflection
Prisha This project has always been a great way for students to communicate with each other, despite the difference in language, culture, tradition, etc. Being the second time taking part in this project, I have experienced a lot of events that were unexpectedly knowledgeable. Taking interviews with authorities and posts of actual organizations was a great venture. I learned a lot about how people and systems work in order to prevent excess food wastage. Besides all this, I started acknowledging my mistakes better and learned to put up with my teammates. Working on this project included working with the ups and downs of each and every team member. I really appreciate the efforts put in by everyone in this project, especially my teammates who accompanied me through this rough, adventurous journey. |
Krishiv EUMIND was an amazing research-based project involving several interactive meetings with the students of Netherland. It helped us develop our knowledge and communication skills. The interviews that were conducted, changed my opinion about Saving Food. Especially the interview with the Roti Bank Manager, it taught me the importance of saving food. I also learnt about the best methods of saving food and avoiding food wastage by understanding and implementing the 9 tips. My group members were very co-operative and helpful, we divided our work equally and advised each other to finish the tasks on time. Our European mates were also very friendly and it wasn’t long before we started exchanging our opinions on Saving Food. I would have really liked more meetings with our European mates and will be looking forward to being a part of EUMIND next year. |
Ojal This experience was very enriching and I learned a lot of new things which are important. First of all, saving food is of utmost importance and I learned a lot of new ways and tips for reducing food waste. It also gave me great happiness to realize that this time I was taking conscious efforts to decrease the amount of food I waste. This journey had a lot of ups and downs, and together my teammates and I learned how to cope up to each other’s strengths and weaknesses, complete work on time and push to our limits and work the hardest. All of my teammates gave their best and worked the hardest, consistently contributing, supporting and helping to do all the work at all times. It was a wonderful experience which will always be cherished!! |
Ishaan This experience was enriching and made me reflect on how food wastage is such a major issue and how small actions we take can help. Actions like putting up poster, we reflected on how small eating habits we should change to avoid such wastage, and even interacted with the students in Netherlands and discussed what measures they are taking. |