Food For Our Future Kids’ Activities

Tales from the compost heap

all 5 episodes available to watch now

Fight food waste with YOUR packed lunch!

Here are some tips to ensure school lunches are eaten and do not end up in the bin!

• Buy a lunch box with compartments or pack food in boxes/ containers rather than bags. This will stop foods from getting squashed and crushed which often leads to wastage, you also won’t need to use cling film or foil!

• Keep an eye on what is regularly coming home uneaten. If certain foods are regularly coming home uneaten and being binned, be ready to adapt and try something different! You can also offer uneaten foods as a snack after school.

• Reuse leftovers like pasta from dinner in packed lunches the next day. This will make sure leftover food gets eaten up and also offers a nice change from sandwiches!

• Give your kids a choice! Give them two choices for their packed lunch. If children are able to choose, they’re more likely to pick what they enjoy and eat it all up.

• Freeze certain foods. Did you know yoghurts can be frozen to make them last longer and you can butter frozen bread to make a sandwich? They’ll be defrosted by lunch time!

Get clued up on composting AND MAKE YOUR OWN BLACK GOLD!

Composting is a great way to recycle food scraps and turn them into valuable food for your garden!

Get your kids clued up on what composting is and what can/can’t be composted with these resources:

• Composting - Peppa Pig Style!

• A composting video for children who are a little bit older

• My Compost Bin and Sort it Out worksheet.

Take it a step further and make your own compost -

1. In a bucket with a lid… instructions can be found here.

2. If you don’t have a bucket, try composting your food scraps in a glass jar.

Once your compost is up and running (or you could visit a nearby compost heap)… try this compost critters worksheet and learn all about the creepy crawlies which makes themselves at home in compost.

STOP THE FRIGHTENING HALLOWEEN FOOD WASTE!

Halloween really is a scary time when you realise just how many pumpkins are thrown away. In the UK, a whopping 18,000 tonnes of pumpkin are thrown away each year and the vast majority of this goes to landfill rather than for composting!

Get the kids involved and eat your pumpkin this autumn. Delicious recipes to try include:

• Pumpkin and raisin loaf

• Peanut butter and pumpkin buscuits

• Pumpkin skin crisps

• Pumkin houmous

• Pumpkin pie s’mores

• Halloween pumpkin cake

More pumpkin recipes for kids’ inspiration can be found here.

GET INVOLVED IN THE FAMILY MEAL PLANNING!

The fight against food waste really is one for the whole family, not just the adults.

Introduce your children to issues like food waste when they are young and build healthy, sustainable food habits for life!

• Get the kids to scope out the fridge, cupboards and freezer and help make a meal plan for the week ahead using our weekly meal planner. This way they can suggest the meals they would like to have that week and when you go shopping they can have the task of ticking things off the list!

• Spend half an hour to an hour with the kids making a list of all the meals you have in the freezer. When you come to meal planning, make sure to use one of these up each week!

• Have a shopping list in the kitchen where it is the kids’ job to add something to the list if you run out. This will make it a lot easier when you come to write your weekly shopping list.