Funding to reduce food waste

As part of the NSW Government’s Love Food Hate Waste grants program, 10 organisations have been awarded a share of over $320,000 to help reduce the huge amount of food that is wasted every year — about one million tonnes in NSW alone, according to Environment Minister Mark Speakman.

The program is intended to complement the Environment Protection Authority’s (EPA) Love Food Hate Waste program by distributing over $1.4 million of funding to eligible groups, such as councils, council groups, non-government organisations and community groups, over four years. The third of four funding rounds has now been completed.

The latest grants include:

• $69,794 to the Total Environment Centre to work with the Institute of Sustainable Futures, UTS to develop a toolkit for festival and market stall holders.
• $60,516 to Hunter Councils to work on campus with University of Newcastle students to reduce food waste.
• $34,110 to North East Waste to expand its Love Food Challenge to include 14 cooking workshops across seven local government areas.
• $21,953 to Lake Macquarie City Council for its Healthy Lunch Boxes program to help parents make healthy, affordable and waste-free lunches for kids.

“The Round 3 Love Food Hate Waste grants will help people learn how to avoid wasting food by teaching them how to shop for, cook and store food in a sustainable way,” Speakman said.

“This includes education about meal planning and portion sizing, safe and efficient food storage and recipes for using leftovers.

“By learning techniques to avoid wastage, we’re not only helping the environment but also our hip pocket.”

The full list of the latest grants recipients can be viewed here.