The Love Food Hate Waste second chance kai sessions were held at Court Cres, Panmure at the Tamaki Community Church with a lovely group of 14 participants to most sessions. We started each session with an interesting fact to get us thinking from a waste perspective, acknowledging and learning a better way.
Facts included a 12.5% increase in cost of living is significant and we can reduce our spending by reducing waste, or that on average around 40% of each landfill bag was found to be food waste. We also looked at the difference of ‘Best Before’ and ‘Use by’. We discussed why reducing waste saved us money and helped the environment at the same time, as well as using bokashi, compost, worm farms and council’s new ‘Food scraps’ initiative. I encouraged them to use the website lovefoodhatewaste.co.nz for more ways to reduce waste and make better use of kai.
We introduced planning ideas like meal and purchase planning that led to zero waste. For example a cabbage might be stir fried into noodle dish, added to a stew and made into a coleslaw, all eaten that week and nothing wasted. Also using better storage methods, like fridge bags and using the whole item, like the stalks of broccoli as well as the head, and making use of scrappy bits to create stock. We explored different ways to use up leftovers and at each session cooked something demonstrating a particular point. Each participant was given a koha, like a wok, or a sandwich maker at sessions end based on what we had cooked or discussed that day, which was well received.
Comments that came back at the end included key learnings were how to get more out of our weekly buys and make them more versatile. They loved the korero and being hands on. They wished the sessions continued and included more things like preserving and gardening and especially enjoyed new things like pizzas made with healthy toppings or how to make soups and stew with lots of tasty ingredients.
It was deemed a great success and the four weeks was great for building on previous learning each week.
Massive thank you to Auckland Council – Waste Solutions Team for the funding to run these workshops in our local community.
Rākau Tautoko 