Campaigns

Yorkshire Post

Wednesday 16 February 2011

National Love Food Hate Waste Campaign

Food lovers: Cookery lesson at The Nigel Brown Academy

We throw away 8.3m tonnes of food and drink per year in the UK.

Most of this (5.3m tonnes) could have been consumed.

This is at a cost of £12bn and equates to £480 per year for the average household, rising to around £680 per year for families with children, or £50 a month. If we stopped wasting all this food and drink, it would save the equivalent of at least 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. That is the equivalent of taking one in four cars off UK roads.

Testimonies

Joanna Boardman    Waste Minimisation Officer   North East Lincolnshire
Council  01472 325843  joanna.boardman@nelincs.gov.uk


We really enjoy working with Nigel and Lisa and found them to be very efficient and engaging to our visitors. Nigel has appeared at several of our open air events and having such a visual and engaging way of talking to people about food waste was a fantastic draw. Many "professional chef" demonstrations don't allow any interaction, and certainly no tasting of the food, but these demos give both. We had 30 seats set out, but each demonstration must have had at least 60 watching, and learning! 

Members of the public were delighted that Nigel was using everyday ingredients, and identifying with what many households struggle to use (eg. flat lemonade). They also enjoyed challenging him on ways to creatively use up things "lurking" in their fridges at home. Having a professional on stage also gave the credibility for the messages which people need to hear.

Nigel has also helped to challenge households in our area on their food waste and appeared on BBC Look North with one of our 'Food Waste families'. He made some delicious dishes out of the family's store cupboard ingredients, that looked very appealing, and tasted even better!

We look forward to working with him further in the future.

Waste Strategy team
North East Lincolnshire Council