Environment News

Friday 4 August is the Environment Group Free Dress Day. This year we are focusing on the theme of ‘food waste’ supporting an organisation called FareShare. They collect surplus food from farms, supermarkets, donated through organisations like Foodbank to cook up meals for disadvantaged groups across Australia. On average, their Brisbane volunteer kitchen receives 10 tonnes of surplus food a week (food that is perfectly edible but for whatever reason would have been thrown away otherwise), and their volunteers make about 6,000-7,000 meals a day which are distributed free to hundreds of charities including soup vans, homeless shelters, women’s refuges, community food banks, First Nations organisations and groups assisting natural disasters.

On Friday, we are asking students to either donate money or food staples – namely, tinned tomatoes, cooking salt, rolled oats, or canned pulses (lentils, chickpeas etc.). – to FareShare.

During the break, our Year 10 LMYELN students also will be running a food stall to raise money for their environmental project of an Indigenous garden plot outside the renovated Cyprian Pavillion.

Last term, we took a group of students out to see their operations. It was fascinating. The head chef there has no say in what food comes into the kitchen so it’s basically a giant Mystery Box challenge from MasterChef every week. And they can’t just cook a curry every week – they must consider the different palates of the people eating the food (from kids to oldies), cultural differences, the restrictions of people in remote areas or impacted by natural disasters or escaping a domestic violence situation etc. so don’t have kitchens, electricity, or the knowledge to cook themselves a meal. Ultimately, FareShare emphasises the importance of a dignity of a meal – a very Marist consideration. 

During Assembly and Extended PG, students will be learning more about the issue of food waste and the wonderful work of FareShare.