Connecting Experience

Goal 2 – Zero Hunger
We already have more than enough food to feed everyone on the planet, but hunger is still the leading cause of death in the world. Millions of people are malnourished, but if we simply cut down on food waste, give everyone equal access to land, and support local and sustainable farmers, no one will ever go hungry again.
Tasks
Biscuit Game
Wake up points
Age Group: 7+ | Amount of people: 20+ |
Time: 20 – 30 minutes
Objective:
To explore global food distribution and discuss food inequality.
Material:
30 biscuits (could also be done with squares of chocolate, small sweets etc)
Instructions:
Divide the participants into groups (don’t tell the groups that they represent the continents) and give each group a set of biscuits by the table below.
Group | No. Participants | No. Biscuits |
Africa | 3 | 1 |
Asia | 11 | 4 |
South America | 2 | 1 |
North America | 1 | 10 |
Oceania | 1 | 5 |
Europe | 2 | 9 |
Let the groups decide themselves what way they want to divide the biscuits in their groups and leave them for a few minutes. Once they’ve finished start a discussion.
Debrief:
- What do you think your groups represent?
- Did you think this was fair? Why do you think some groups had so much and some so little?
- What did it feel like to be a group with more or with less biscuits?
- How did it feel to look at the groups that were different to yours?
- How did you divide the biscuits in your group? Did you share or ask for some from other groups?
- What is something you think could be done to make things fairer?
- Do you know about any charities or groups in your community that are working to help solve this problem?
- Is there anything you can do as a guide or scout to help with this problem?
Cooking Challenge
Wake up points
Age Group: 11+ | Amount of people: 5+ |
Time: 60 minutes – 90 minutes
Objective:
To encourage the participants to cook fresh meals, and to explore what can be made from food that would otherwise go to waste.
Material:
Ingredients brought by participants, container, cooking equipment and something to cook on
Instructions:
Have each participant bring one ingredient from home, ideally something that’s nearing its use by date, or something their family isn’t going to eat.
Suggest things like vegetables, fruit, eggs, grains, meat etc rather than foods like sweets or cakes.
Place all the ingredients into a container. In small groups, have the participants choose ingredients from the container without looking. Using all the ingredients they have, challenge the groups to prepare a dish making as little waste as possible.
Have participants present their dishes to the other groups and encourage them to try what the other groups have made.
If there’s a dish the whole group particularly likes, consider adding it to the meals you make at camp.
Food around the world
Look around
Age Group: 10+ | Amount of people: 8+ |
Time: 40 minutes
Objective:
To learn about food waste.
Material:
Paper, pens
Instructions:
Split participants into groups of 4, participants should choose one member of the group to be the ‘secretary’ who will write down the group’s answers and another to be the ‘reporter’ who will present their group’s ideas back to the rest of the participants.
The leader will call out the questions one at a time and write them on a big sheet of paper. The participants have 5 minutes each time to respond.
When the reporter presents their groups ideas, the Leader should write all the answers below the question to create a cloud of Ideas. If a word is said more than once, underline it every time a group says it.
Here are some questions that you can use:
- Define “Food Waste” in 3 words
- How much food do you think is wasted, on average, every year in the world?
- Response: 1,3 billion of kg in average
- Where and when does food waste happen?
- Why is it important to reduce Food Waste?
- What is an action you can do to fight Food Waste?
Food waste
Look around
Age Group: 11+ | Amount of people: 3+ |
Time: 2 to 3 weeks
Objective:
To be aware of food waste and to find ways to avoid it.
Material:
Paper, pens
Instructions:
Step 1: Track your food waste
- For one or two weeks, participants should take note of every time they, or the people around them, throw away food. They should also try to find out about food waste in different places they visit eg. in their school, in the movie theatre, etc.
Step 2: Awareness
Have participants share what they found:
- Did you find a place with no food waste?
- How much did you throw away? Was it because it was out of date?
- Were you surprised by how much/little waste you created?
Share the below facts about food waste, and discuss their thoughts about them
- “Over 1/3 of all food produced globally goes to waste.”
- “The annual value of food wasted globally is $1 trillion, and it weighs 1.3 billion tonnes.”
- “The world’s one billion hungry people could be fed on less than a quarter of the food that is wasted in the US, UK and Europe.”
- “An area larger than China is used to grow food that is never eaten.”
(more facts and references can be found on this website: https://olioex.com/food-waste/food-waste-facts/)
Step 3: Find some solutions
Together come up with some ideas to reduce food waste in their daily life.
Here are some examples:
- Check what you have at home before going grocery shopping and plan meals based on that
- Know the difference between “use by” and “best before”
- Take smaller portions of food
Organic Farm
ACT points
Age Group: 7+ | Amount of people: 5+ |
Time: 2 – 4 weeks
Objective:
To learn the difference between organic and non-organic farming, and try it out.
Material:
Seeds, compost, water
Instructions:
If possible, find a farmer in the area who has an organic farm. Go and visit their farm to find out how and why they decided to work organically.
If there is no organic farm around them, have the participants research what organic farming is, how it works etc.
When they have completed their visit and or research, challenge the group to try and create their own mini farm.
Have participants choose some fruit or vegetables to grow, either at home or at their meeting place. Participants should use what they learned about farming to help them successfully grow their crops.
Have participants choose what they will do with their successfully grown food, they could use them for meals at home, for a cookout during a meeting, or donate them to a group that is making food for those in need.
Pay It Forward
ACT points
Age Group: 11+ | Amount of people: 3+ |
Time: 2 – 4 weeks
Objective:
To help provide free meals or drinks.
Material:
Paper, computer
Instructions:
In some areas, there are coffee shops and restaurants that have an option called “hold a coffee/meal”. In these places, when buying something you can also pay for a second coffee or sandwich etc. that the owner will keep for someone who can’t afford one.
For this project participants should get in touch with a local business and find one who can support the project.
Once they’ve found a place that can support this action, prepare posters or posts on social media to spread the word. Aim to spread the word to both people who can pay for an extra coffee and people who can’t afford one. They could get in touch with local homelessness charities etc to help spread the word.
If the project is successful, consider contacting more places in the area and encouraging them to also join the project.