Food Waste: Voicing Change Through Education
Civic Action Project done by Aidan Ainsley (12.2), and
Moses Hernandez (12.1)
Course taught by Professor Tiede,
Columbia Secondary School
What is Food Waste?
What is Food Waste?
Me and my partner Aidan both realized that our families take proactive measures to reduce our food waste. But, what do we mean by food waste? Food waste is the act of discarding perfectly edible food by placing it in the garbage. This is a huge problem here in NYC, as “3.9 million tons of wasted food from New York ends up in landfills, where it slowly decays and is a major contributor to methane gas production” (www.nycfoodpolicy.org/food-waste-food-by-the-numbers).
Why is it a big deal?
Why is it a big deal?
In our previous slide, we quoted an article mentioning methane gas production, and that food waste contributes to the production of it. Methane gas traps significantly more heat compared to carbon dioxide, which makes food waste a threat to the global warming crisis. Not to mention, “12.8 percent of New Yorkers are food insecure.” (www.nycfoodpolicy.org/food-waste-food-by-the-numbers). Food insecurity is the condition of having inadequate access to food due to economic constraints.
How it affects us
New York City is infamous for it’s waste, whether it be trash in the subway, in the sidewalks, or even here in school. Examples of this is where we have to lounge through spilled milk on the stairwell, or walk past ketchup that is violently smeared against school walls.
Food Waste is not a joke, we wanted to significantly reduce this waste. It is appalling for our school community to tread over such filth. Some positives of combating this issue include:
So, what was our action?
So, what was our action?
We made a 5-minute long video to educate viewers with facts regarding food waste, in hopes that they would reduce food waste on their own parts by following clear steps we highlight in the video. We showcased our video in our school’s Climate Action Day event on February 7th, where I (Moses Hernandez) announced to all students in the building over a loudspeaker instructing them to check their emails.�
The principles we glossed over in the video include but are not limited to:
How we got Approval
In the production of this video, we presented a prototype to our school’s Green Team, which is a club in our school that is passionately dedicated to solving environmental issues. Using a survey (shown on the QR code), we gathered feedback and their approval to showcase this to the entire school.
Our Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP4mvnSd3jk
After several months, we finished our video and were able to showcase it to the entire school. The heading link should grant access to the video. We hope you all enjoy.