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Food-Waste-Free Week on Wageningen Campus
Did you know that one-quarter of all of the food in the Netherlands is never consumed? All that food is cultivated, processed, transported, cooled and heated. All of this requires a lot of energy. Energy that contributes to global warming. Hence, wasting as little food as possible is all the more important. Join the Waste-Free Week from 12 to and including 18 September. Everyone who eats can join, on campus or at home.
The Food-Waste-Free Week 2022 is an initiative by the foundation Food Waste Free United.
Creative with leftovers
Nobody wants to waste food. You can prevent a lot of waste by getting creative with leftovers at home. If everyone contributes, we can achieve great results for our climate together. You could store leftovers on a designated shelf in your fridge to help you remember to use them. Or cook exact amounts by measuring or weighing your rice, for example. That way, you will have fewer leftovers.
Food-Waste-Free campus
On Wageningen Campus, we also aim to waste as little food as possible. In the week from 12 to 18 September, catering services CIRFOOD, Hutten and OSP will add #foodwastefree to the menu. Waste-free products and menu options will be available from 12.30 to 14.00 every day in Aurora, Impulse, Omnia, Forum and Orion. Moreover, the caterers will demonstrate how they collaborate with partners such as Orbisk, Foodsharing and Too Good To Go.
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Together Against Food Waste
The foundation Food Waste Free United is the movement that merges and accelerates all the leading initiatives and expertise for a waste-free Netherlands. Within this foundation, businesses from throughout the chain, knowledge institutes, governments and civic organisations join forces to work on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 (to slash food waste in half by 2030). The foundation aims to reduce food waste by one billion kilogrammes in the Netherlands through a coordinated and joint approach. The WUR researchers involved in the foundation Food Waste Free United won the 1st WUR Impact Award earlier this year.
More about the Food-Waste-Free Week
This is the fourth time the national Waste-Free Week is to be organised. The goal of this week is to positively inspire Dutch consumers to buy, cook and store food in a waste-free manner. Over 130 partners are involved with contributions such as publicity in the national media, visibility in most supermarkets, posters at bus stops, socials and local activities. Moreover, hundreds of school classes will join the Taste Mission Food Waste, and the Dietary Centre will distribute tools such as a fridge sticker and a food buddy.
Wageningen Campus Food-Waste-Free?
How does Wageningen Campus act against food waste? ‘There is still much work to be done and many opportunities we can seize’, says Sanne Stroosnijder, programme manager of Food Loss and Waste Prevention and a member of the Food Waste Free United core team.
The fact that all involved parties on Wageningen Campus are joining the Food-Waste-Free Week this year is a step in the right direction. This way, we involve our students and employees in this key issue in the transition towards a sustainable, circular economy. We are also eager to discuss this issue with all actors on the campus. This year, we have already been invited to Unilever’s Foods Innovation Centre, but next year we hope to involve even more campus residents.’
Programme Food-Waste-Free Week
Orion and Impulse
OSP will highlight a different waste-free dish in these locations every day of the week. Examples include banana bread made from overly ripe bananas, bread pudding made from leftover bread or a soup prepared from the discarded butts and tops of vegetables. The caterer’s coffee grounds are collected by Sligro and brought to GRO. Coffee grinds form a perfect substrate for the cultivation of oyster mushrooms. The oyster mushrooms are used in the oyster mushroom bitterbal. This delicious vegetarian alternative makes good use of waste streams. This oyster mushroom bitterbal will be promoted and distributed in Orion between 11.45 and 13.45 on Thursday.
Aurora and Omnia
Hutten catering will organise a week-long Food-Wast- Free festival. Waste-free soup will be served every day of the week and can be sampled for free on Thursday. This soup is produced by the Waste Factory, which aims to comprehensively address the enormous waste of fresh vegetable waste streams. The factory salvages these vegetables and turns them into tasty soups, sauces and stews. The workers in the factory have labour disabilities and are therefore distanced from the employment market.
Banana bread made from overly ripe bananas will be served in the espresso bar of Aurora on a daily base, and Too Good To Go will also be present with a stand.
Additionally, the daily menu will feature the Zwamcijsje (a vegetarian alternative to the typically Dutch sausage roll) made by Wageningen start-up UmaMeats. Zwamcijsje is an excellent example of circular food, with less waste and locally sourced ingredients. Every year, approximately one-third of all farmland is sown with grain, for bread, among other things. However, more than half of the grain consists of straw, which is frequently left behind in the fields. Mushrooms thrive on straw and convert it into vitamin, mineral and protein-rich mushrooms. That way, no straw is wasted.
In Omnia, Hutten catering will serve zero-waste soup made from leftover vegetables from their kitchen every day.
Forum
Caterer CIRFOOD in Forum will focus on waste during the entire week through various activities that are organised in collaboration with its partners and suppliers:
On Tuesday 13 September, from 11.30 en 14.00, there will be a demonstration of the Orbisk automated food waste monitor. Orbisk helps professional kitchens get a grip on their food waste by measuring and classifying the discarded food and recording the amount and time of day.
On Wednesday, 14 September, you can join a contest on food waste and earn cool food-waste-free prizes such as potato beer made from salvaged potatoes or a cookbook with circular recipes. The winners will be announced in the Grand Café at the end of the day.
On Thursday, 15 September, CIRFOOD will hand out free apples in the Forum restaurant from 11.30 – 14.00. The apples come from the Instock Market, the catering supplier for salvaged food products.
The CIRFOOD Grand Café in Forum brews coffee with circular coffee beans by Circle of Beans throughout the year. These beans are roasted on biogas, generated from the coffee grounds of brewed coffee. Circle of Beans’ cars are also powered by biogas. These coffee beans will be spotlighted during the food-waste-free week.