Food Waste Workshop

Students Learn to Recycle Food

Nanki BhullarTHE SANTA CLARAApril 16, 2015 

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]tudents flocked to the Forge Garden to learn how to recycle food waste during an interactive workshop last week.

Following a lecture on global food security held in February, the food waste workshop gave students an opportunity to apply what they learned at the lecture and make a personal contribution by implementing strategies to reduce their own food waste.

“Reducing home food waste is not the only way to help the environment, but it’s a way students can have more control and a way we can offer empowerment,” said Clare Gordon, administrative assistant for the Food and Agribusiness Institute.

Students taking a garbology course taught by Stephanie Hughes, an adjunct lecturer in the Environmental Studies and Sciences Department, learned how to cut down food waste using proper storage, meal planning, shopping techniques like buying in bulk and setting up compost bins built into kitchen islands.

Blair Libby, who lives in the CITRUS House, an eco-friendly house for Santa Clara students, and CITRUS House landlord Lauren McCutcheon led the workshops. Techniques such as these are both cost-effective and beneficial to the environment.

Rose Madden, garden manager at the Forge, also showed students how to compost food scraps to keep food out of landfills and avoid the production of greenhouse gasses. Students also were given a tutorial on how to keeping a worm bin and start a container garden at home with the compost from one’s worm bin.

“While some of the discussion topics may not be relevant for students living in the dorms presently, most of the tips and techniques can be used by anyone,” Gordon said. “Even if you don’t have a kitchen or a garden right now, these tips can be shared with family and friends, or filed away for future use.”

This workshop not only addressed food recycling, but also touched upon how to generate less food waste.

At the companion panel discussion on April 7, Wendi Shafir from the Environmental Protection Agency said that over 40 percent of food in the United States gets thrown out.

While personal habits are just one source of food waste, it’s still an area in which individuals can make a difference, Shafir said.

Contact Nanki Bhullar at nbhullar@scu.edu.