Lisburn City & Castlereagh Council’s (LCCC) Waste Education and Environmental Health Officers have joined forces with SERC students from the Level 3 Professional Chef course at Lisburn Campus to produce a new booklet to help residents reduce food waste at home.
The booklet combines practical advice and a selection of tasty, budget-friendly recipes that show how to make the most of leftovers and everyday store-cupboard ingredients. It also promotes energy-saving cooking methods and how to make cost-effective choices in the kitchen. Alongside the recipes, there are useful tips on storing and cooking food safely.
The students, under tutelage of Chef Lecturer Ian Thompson, embraced this project wholeheartedly, and their reflections capture both the creativity and the practical importance of reducing food waste.
Lecturer Ian Thompson said, “We all really enjoyed working on this project. Sustainability is embedded in our course, so researching, testing recipes and coming up with new ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert, complemented what we do throughout the programme.”
Ian concluded, “Making delicious, nutritious meals with whatever you have in your fridge or cupboard, or with leftovers, is not difficult, but it takes a little imagination. We hope everyone will enjoy dipping into the More Taste Less Waste recipes for ideas and inspiration.” The students’ contribution to the project was entered into the SERC Project-Based Learning Expo, under the Sustainability and Environmental Impact category. After impressing judges at the Lisburn heat, the team went on to secure second place at the Final.
Environmental Services Committee Chair, Alderman Owen Gawith, from LCCC, met with the students to officially launch the booklet and praised their efforts. “I was really impressed by the way the students have shown that small changes in our kitchens can have a big impact in reducing food waste. Their creativity shows that cooking sustainably can be simple, tasty and affordable. If every household followed just a few of the tips in this booklet, we would see less food wasted and more money in people’s pockets.”
Copies of the booklets will be provided to community groups when they engage with the Waste Education Team and their useful “Tacking Food Waste and saving money” talk. To find out more about the free talks and workshops email: waste.education@lisburncastlereagh.gov.uk.
