The Love Your Food @ Schools Project aims to cultivate the message of reducing food waste among the young by using food-waste digesters in primary and secondary schools to produce compost (10 schools to get food-waste digesters; April 8).

It is encouraging to see the education sector raising awareness and actively involving young people in environmental concerns. A food-waste digester is certainly a first step towards encouraging a more environmentally friendly lifestyle for our young.

Moving forward, perhaps they could be educated on how to avoid food wastage as well.

One suggestion could be to include food portioning in the Home Economics syllabus for lower secondary students. They could be tasked with coming up with a list of ingredients, which they are required to use, and reuse, to create different dishes. Cultivating a knowledge of reusing ingredients can help reduce kitchen leftovers.

Another suggestion is to involve students directly in the food production process by requiring them to grow a plant in the school garden to be used as an ingredient in meal preparation.

Other than cultivating responsibility and patience, the gardening process would allow students to experience the effort behind food production and understand the value of food, thus reducing wastage in the long run.

Students can take home their plants at the end of the academic year, which can act as a reminder to be environmentally responsible, even at home.

Jasmine Lim (Ms)