ACG Food Waste Campaign
Did you know that 1/3 of all food globally goes to waste? Wasting food also means wasting the water used to produce the food and the land on which the food has been produced (28% of the world’s agricultural land), while 9.9% of the human population is undernourished. Due to food wastage billions of tons of CO2 emissions are released into Earth’s atmosphere, contributing greatly to climate change. (fao.org)
According to UN’s Food Waste Index Report 2021, Greek people waste on average 142 kg of food annually, one of the highest in the world.
ACG is dedicated to reducing food waste both on campus and in the broader community. Since November 2018, the College has been collaborating with the NGO Boroume. In the context of our collaboration, we have adopted two farmers’ markets – the ACG Farmers’ Market initiative – where students, staff, and faculty volunteer on a weekly basis and save food that would otherwise end up in the landfill. From November 2018 until now, our volunteers have saved almost ten tons of food, equating to approximately 39,000 meals, by offering 667 hours of community service!
As of October 2020, ACG is a member of the Alliance for the Reduction of Food Waste, a group of public authorities, well-known companies, food and service businesses from all areas of the supply chain, social impact organizations, and academic and research institutions, coming together to prevent and reduce food waste in Greece, aiming at raising awareness, educating the public, highlighting and disseminating best practices, exchanging knowledge and ideas, promoting research and innovation, promoting and donating any surplus food to social impact organizations, and, most importantly, advocating for public policy on preventing and reducing food waste and food loss in Greece.
In the academic year 2021-2022, in tandem with the EU Directive 2018/851 and subsequent national law, we are taking it one step further by launching a campus-wide campaign on reducing and preventing food waste!
“The ACG Food Waste Campaign: Reduce your FOODprint!” aims at raising awareness about this critical issue and educating our community on best practices on how to save food.
Are you interested in learning how much food you waste in your household?
Click here to calculate your FOODprint!
