About 900 school students and the public participated in a ‘Foodathon’ that was organised at Race Course on Sunday to campaign for zero food waste in schools.
The event was held by the School for Promoting Innovation and Creativity in Education (SPICE), towards their goal of ‘No Food Waste’.
A helpline number 9087790877 was also launched during the event so that institutions and organisations can report about leftover food and avoid wastage.
“A goods carrier has been deployed for collecting the leftover food. It will be segregated and will be used based on its quality,” A.G. Padmanaban of SPICE said.
He said that good food would be diverted to homes for the needy and the orphanages.
Food that cannot be consumed would be taken to animal farms for feed or to the bio waste management plants. He added that they had identified six farms, in Thondamuthur and nearby areas, where about 800 kg of food waste could be utilised every day as animal feed.
Mr. Padmanaban said that during a month-long drive, from October 16 to November 14, carried out by them in about 15 schools in the city, a study was conducted on quantity of food wasted by students.
“An average 10 to 15 kg of food was wasted in each school,” he said and added that a drive to reduce wastage was then carried out in the schools.
On Sunday, five schools, who managed to reduce the food wastes effectively during the month-long drive, were recognised with a ‘Zero Food Waste Campus’ award.
Best Food Waste Awareness Drive Campus Ambassadors award were given away to the student volunteers who had actively involved in the campaign. Pamphlets with 28 suggestions were distributed to the public.
The drive was organised as part of the efforts to make Coimbatore a zero food waste city.
