Have you ever thought about how much excess food is binned after the holidays?
It is mostly unopened fresh produce. We are part of a cycle, we buy too much food daily and never eat it. LSE is trying to be part of the solution. LSE SU Food Cycle will put up boxes in all LSE halls, where people will be able to leave unopened and unused food throughout December. In the beginning of the new year, all donations will be given to people in need.
As an institution, LSE has been on the sustainability path for a long time. A 10p “tax” on every water bottle sold on campus goes towards the LSE Sustainability Fund; this helps finance student projects. Recently, Café 54 has come up with another way to contribute: it donates all unused food daily.
This is where LSE SU Food Cycle comes in again: members distribute the food to people in need around campus every day of the week. The founder of the Save Food Project, Swati Narayan, and the society works in line with the ethics of the FoodCycle charity, which wants to reduce food waste by making it possible for the food to reach all those in need.
LSE doesn’t have a lot of excess food to begin with. In line with its sustainability concept, the quantity of produced food is very well calculated and managed, so as not to result in waste. Because of this, LSE SU Food Cycle has reached out to other partners such as Pret a Manger, Soho Coffee Co and Gail’s Bakery. Also, the society has just recently organised the “Jazz Feast”, where volunteers cooked food donated from Borough market.
It doesn’t stop there: a petition has been launched calling for new UK legislation to ban food waste. We discussed this with Joselene Katayama, the current president of the society. We have heard stories about it – the tons of food binned every day by major food chains, hotels and restaurants. At the same time our streets are filled with people who are struggling to afford a decent meal daily. Joselene believes that this is the beginning of a legacy that one-day LSE will look back at and be proud of. ‘Our university can influence food waste and help ban it’.
So, if you are looking for an easy way to help, why not pick up a few sandwiches after you have finished studying on campus and help the ones who really need it. Get in contact with LSE SU Food Cycle Society to see how you can help LSE on its path towards sustainable future. Don’t forget to sign the petition as well, because small steps are necessary but only with nationwide changes can we make a long-lasting impact: https://goo.gl/7GYtFh
