An innovative approach to food waste management in order to educate young people to value food and reduce the waste.

Protection of the environment and minimalization of risks to climate, human health and biodiversity represent priorities of the EU policies, for whose fulfilment we need to deal with a major issue...

ZERO WASTE project’s partners focused on: introducing the problem of food waste to school educators; raising awareness regarding the dangers of food waste among teachers, students, parents; teaching the target groups in order to be the transmitters for a new way of life based on the proper management of the daily food consumption, thus eliminating food waste with the motto ‘use wisely, reduce, recycle’. Aware of the crucial role teachers play in shaping the students’ behavior and attitude towards food, partners aimed to inform and educate, first of all, the teachers, by designing a useful training material about the impact food waste has at social, environmental and financial level, and then by offering examples of best practices to reduce it. The introduction of food waste management concept in class and the organization of different activities based on the didactic resources created in the project was another main objective of ZERO WASTE, so that the knowledge and skills acquired by the teachers will be passed to their students. Partners aimed that teachers, other school staff, children and their families, whose attitude and actions have changed due to ZERO WASTE activities, will impact their communities and reduce food waste.

Within ZERO WASTE project, partners implemented: PROJECT MANAGEMENT & IMPLEMENTATION activities The coordinating partner created the Management Handbook, as the main document in which all relevant guidelines for the project’s overall administrative, technical and financial management were included; the document, shared with all project partners, described, and offered for internal use: the tools and methodology for the project’s overall and financial management, implementation and monitoring; the official templates, timeline and procedure for the project’s reporting activities; the tools and methodology for the internal communication among project partners; the project’s Risk Management Plan; the project’s monitoring bodies along with their roles and responsibilities, such as the project Steering Committee - composed from at least 1 project manager from each one of the partners; the detailed action plan & timeline for the implementation of the project’s tasks and activities. ONLINE PROJECT MEETINGS Apart from the different types of reports (dissemination, evaluation, financial, management narrative reports, etc) which were drawn so as to ensure a proper management and monitoring of the project’s progress, online meetings were organised regularly. TRANSNATIONAL MEETINGS The 4 transnational meetings played a crucial role in the implementation of the cooperation partnership. Each partner meeting addressed key project deliverables, project management and monitoring activity. This included budget management, progress and timesheet reporting, workplan and risk register review, project results progress update etc. The face-to-face meetings were complemented by monthly steering committee meetings (online) to ensure the project KPIs remain on-track and within the proposed timeframe. PROJECT RESULTS There were four project results achieved as part of ZERO WASTE partnership. PR1: ZERO WASTE European Synthesis Report on the Needs and Challenges of Food Waste Management in School Education PR2: ZERO WASTE training material development, pilots, and policy recommendations PR3: ZERO WASTE Zero Waste Serious game on Food Waste Management. PR4: ZERO WASTE Toolkit for organizations in education All partners were involved in the creation, revision and offering of feedback for the four results, even if some partners had more responsibilities according to the assumed application and based on their experience and expertise. Each of the project results comprised several activities, which were implemented as proposed in the application. MULTIPLIER EVENTS Zero Waste National Campaigns were organized and implemented in each partner countries in the form of a multiplier event, in the last month of the project. The main aim of these events was to present and disseminate the project’s achieved results and they represented a critical milestone for the project’s successful implementation because they provided an opportunity to promote and disseminate the Zero Waste Desk and field research (PR1), provided an opportunity to attract participants for the pilot implementation of the Zero Waste Training Course and Serious Fame (PR2 & PR3), they offered the chance to engage first-hand with the project’s target groups, as well as to receive valuable feedback on the results and outputs . Equally important, Zero Waste National Campaigns enhanced awareness of Erasmus+ program, its benefits, the project and partners involved. QUALITY ASSURANCE & MONITORING For a proper implementation of the project, which contributed to the fulfilment of the established objectives, a Quality Assurance and Evaluation Plan was designed; it included all relevant key actions, tools and methodology, necessary for the achievement of high-quality results. Moreover, it described the procedure and provided relevant templates for the evaluation of the project’s transversal and specific activities. All partners took part in evaluation of the project's TPMs, PRs, MEs and periodical progress/implementation level; the collected data was gathered and contributed to the development of the Interim and Final Quality Assurance and Evaluation reports. LEARNING, TRAINING, TEACHING ACTIVITY Another important activity implemented in our project was the training event, for a duration of 3 days, held in Spain. The training activity aimed to increase the range of training abilities of the teachers, with a set of knowledge, skills, and competences related to Food Waste management, which are not usually taught at the university, sorely needed to train students. It was also targeted at piloting and testing of the effectiveness of the developed materials against a group of trained professionals who have the ability to provide a critical view over the documentation and identify possible gaps or difficulties in its application to learners from different countries or specializations. Partners selected the participants to the training event and carried out all the necessary activities to support them for a useful, successful, satisfying experience, which contributed to their personal and professional development. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES All partners carried out various types of activities, aimed at disseminating the project’s goal, specific objectives, partners, main activities carried out, the TPMs, the project results, the expected impact, the Erasmus+ program and the benefits of taking part in such projects. The target groups for the dissemination activities included teachers, students, their parents, representatives of NGOs, other local/regional institutions (such as local administration, educational institutions with coordinating and monitoring role). Through all dissemination activities, partners also focused on making people aware about the importance of preventing food waste, getting students and teachers interested in the activities of the project, making people understand the negative consequences of food waste upon the environment and the economy.

As an overall result, ZERO WASTE contributed to the development of: - a desk research and records concerning all the current needs of schools and good practices in food management and prevention of food waste - an innovative training course and didactic materials (80 teaching resources) - an interactive, e-learning platform - a serious game - a Toolkit for teachers, public organizations, private enterprises and municipalities in order to inform and educate the general public to change their attitude and increase their involvement in various actions to reduce food waste. All these were aimed at raising awareness among school children, teachers, staff and their families regarding food waste issues. The overall result could also be translated into the introduction of good practices that are conducive for food waste reduction, with a long-term impact and contribution to the prevention of food waste. Within this framework, the overall concrete results of ZERO WASTE project were: - increased knowledge regarding the importance of this crucial problem that is food waste - enhanced training material which has empowered teachers, children and parents against environmental risks - preparing the ground to enable implementation of the educational material developed through the project in schools, at national level - a beneficial change in people’s attitude towards food waste - a diminishing of resources used for food production - food saving for human consumption, where lack of food is an issue - saving money and lowering the environmental impact of food production and consumption - reduction of greenhouse gas - protection of our ecosystem from the decline and the consequences of climate change