Tastier together – tackling food waste
Working with the local community to tackle food waste and social isolation together.
Name of project: Food waste prevention via community dialogues and community dinners
The challenge
Around one third of the food produced around the world goes to waste – that’s 1.6 billion tons of food. Those are the shocking facts that this challenge team in Lithuania wanted to confront head on, while also tackling other pressing concerns such as the rising cost of living and social isolation.
The initiative
The Immanuel Kant Public Library in Klaipėda worked with the local community to bring people around the table for communal lunches and food club events to talk, learn, share food planning ideas and to consider how to live more sustainably and efficiently in the face of climate change and the cost-of-living crisis.
The initiative was given the name “It is tastier together” (“Kartu-skanu” in Lithuanian). For the challenge team, it was also important to incorporate a sense of belonging, well-being and togetherness, particularly in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.
As well as holding popular community lunches, they organised engaging workshops, seminars and hands-on cooking classes focused on sustainable recipes, meal planning and food storage techniques, which empowers individuals to make informed decisions and reduce waste in their households.
They also developed a web page involving simple weekly menu planning tips for householders as well as setting up a food sharing platform allowing people to share surplus food, which both fostered connections and reduced waste.
They said: “Step by step, tip by tip, we improve everyday habits on what to do with the excess food, how to save both environmentally and economically by just being smart and aware.”
What’s next?
The challenge team has ambitions to scale up the successful prototype for tackling food waste and bringing people together across Europe by seeking additional funding – helping people across the continent to live more sustainably.
They said: “Our dream idea is the continuity of our food club, designed to gather people, and seeing other teams in Europe scaling up with our social project concept.”
Relevant links
Social media
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kmsvbink
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/klaipeda.biblioteka/
