Environment Group News

This Friday is our Environment Group Free Dress Day. We are again supporting FareShare Charity Kitchen. Currently, we send a group of seniors once a month to the FareShare to help prepare and package meals that are sent all over Australia. In seven shifts, we have helped to chop up 1.1 tonnes of chicken and vegetables and packaged and sealed 13835 meals.

The reason why the Environment Group partners with FareShare is that they are also passionate about reducing surplus food. All the meals they cook up are from ingredients donated from farms, supermarkets, and food banks – food that they would otherwise be wasted. On average they receive 10 tonnes of food a week. On assembly, we had a whole school heads or tails contest to learn about the connected issues of food production and food security. Some of the facts were –

What percentage of food produced globally (that is perfectly edible) is wasted? 

Answer:1/3 

Farms throw away what percentage of the food they produce? 

Answer: 30%

It is estimated that what percentage of Australians "compromise their meal choices" or are forced to "skip meals or whole days of eating" because of rising costs of living? 

Answer: ¼

In 2022, how many Australian households ran out of food due to limited finances? 

Answer: 2 million 

FareShare partners with numerous charities to distribute their healthy and delicious meals to Australians doing it tough - including: people fleeing from domestic violence situations, communities experiencing natural disasters, elderly people, isolated First Nations communities, or just people who are struggling to make ends meet.

As payment for the Free Dress Day, students can either donate $2 through the monitor system or bring a bag of basmati rice. Rice is a staple of so many meals and we want to see how many kg’s of rice Marist College Ashgrove can collect. We need everyone to be a part of this.