16/12/2019

Matai Class at Broomfield School wrapped up a creative food waste programme last week by cooking for their whole school using only supermarket food waste.

The children from Matai Class have been learning with the council’s Waste Educator, Serina Linton, and their teacher, Mr Hobson, about cooking using what would otherwise end up as ‘food waste’.

Mrs Linton’s Waste Education role works with community groups, schools and preschools. The role is about sharing innovative ways of reducing how much waste is sent to landfill and contributing to a sustainable Hurunui.

The class are all in Year 6 and have worked their way from learning the cooking basics to hosting a fully-fledged barbeque for their whole school.

The food waste used for the programme was provided by Satisfy Food Rescue, based in Kaiapoi. Satisfy rescue edible, but unsellable food - using a chiller van to pick it up from donors such as supermarkets or local growers. A lot of learning material used by Mr Hobson, to accompany the programme, came from the Love Food Hate Waste website.

Matai Class made all sorts of things over the term, like home-made apple cider vinegar (which they used in their salad dressing at the final barbeque), vegetable stock from scratch, lemon soda syrup, salads, puddings, sandwiches and much more. They also learnt about food packaging, the council’s recycling schemes and how Mrs Linton reduces waste in her household through low-waste purchasing decisions.

“At first I did a lot of the cooking with the children taking turns until I could step back and the let them cook by themselves” Mrs Linton said. “The BBQ was a way for Matai Class to give thanks and share their learning with the whole school, I think they did really well,” she said.

“I would like to say a big thank you to Satisfy Food Rescue, as all this would not have happened if it was not for their help and support of learning. Thank you also to Matai Class Teacher, Mr Hobson for saying yes to me coming in and running my crazy, ambitious programme” she said.

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