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Food Waste Lesson Plans
The World Wildlife World Wide Fund for Nature's "Be a Food Waste Warrior" program offers K-12 lessons, activities, and resources to teach the planetary impact of what we eat and what we throw away.
You'll find four comprehensive sets of lesson plans, each designed for different age groups: K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12.
Each lesson plan includes several resources:
| • | Teaching Guide: How to Get Started |
| • | Slideshow: "What is Food Waste?" |
| • | Food Audit Instructions |
| • | Discussion Questions |
| • | Free Student Activities |
There are also 2 sets of slideshow lessons designed to introduce your students to the importance of reducing food waste. Designed for K-5 and 6-12. Teacher notes are built right in!
What children will learn with these lesson plans:
| • | The costs of producing food |
| • | The impact of farmland on ecology |
| • | Food waste statistics |
| • | Effect of food waste on the environment |
| • | The food recovery hierarchy |
| • | Solutions to food waste |
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As part of the National Frozen & Refrigerated Foods Association's ongoing efforts to take a bigger role in the food waste conversation, they partnered with educational curriculum specialists, Young Minds Inspired (YMI), to create an online program that highlights how frozen and refrigerated foods can help reduce food waste.
This teaching kit consists of a teacher’s guide and reproducible student activities, as well as a video and infographic on food waste and information on food safety. These materials are targeted to middle and high school students (and their families) in family and consumer/environmental science and health classes.
Lesson plans include:
| • | Reproducible activity sheets |
| • | Videos |
| • | Infographics |
| • | Charts |
| • | Articles |
The Food Matters Action Kit contains over 70 activities to engage youth in preventing food waste. Activities can be done individually or in a series, in any order that suits learning themes for your class or organization. There are two sets of activities: for kids (ages 5-13) and youth (ages 14-25) organized together by theme. Many activities are relevant for either age group, so feel free to explore them all!
Lesson plans include:
| • | Where does food come from? |
| • | More than "Just Food" |
| • | Celebrating "ugly food" |
| • | Stop food waste at its source |
| • | Garbology |
| • | Food innovators |
| • | Food rescue and sharing |
| • | Get composting |
| • | Where does it all go? |
| • | Towards a just and sustainable food system |
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FoodSpan, from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, offers a free, downloadable curriculum which provides high school students with a deep understanding of critical food system issues, empowers them to make healthy and responsible food choices, and encourages them to become advocates for food system change.
Students will learn why food waste is a problem and explore strategies to reduce it. Extension projects will further empower students to take action to reduce food waste in their homes, schools, and communities.
Lesson 13, "Our Wasted Food," focuses on Food Waste and includes:
| • | Learning Objectives |
| • | Essential Questions |
| • | Materials |
| • | Resources |
