The path against food waste is reaching its peak: the 21st and 22nd of October, within framework of the international exhibition Expo Milan 2015 the "1° European Forum of Young and Local Authorities against food waste and for global right to food” will be held, during which the “DON’T WASTE OUR FUTURE charter 2015 - A joint European Manifesto of Young People and Local Authorities to promote food waste reduction and the global right to food”  will be drafted and launched.

The Forum, patronised by the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and Active Citizenship Network (ACN) ,  represents the point of arrival of an Education to Development path that involved young European students and Local Authorities in the debate and in the fight against food waste; a path that is part of the project “DON'T WASTE OUR FUTURE! Building a European alliance of youngsters against food waste and for new models of sustainable development and consumption in the EYD 2015”, that involved 40 secondary schools, about 1400 students, 40 primary schools and 40 Local Authorities from seven European Countries (Italy, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, United Kingdom and France), and of which FELCOS Umbria is the lead partner.

In Umbria eight secondary schools took part in the project (High School specializing in classical studies “F.Frezzi-Beata Angela” of Foligno, the Higher Education Institute “Orfini” of Foligno, the Association CNOS FAP of Foligno, the Higher Education Institute “Ciuffelli-Einaudi” of Todi, the Higher Professional and Technical-Commercial Education Institute “A.Casagrande – F.Cesi” of Terni, Higher Education Institute – Technical Centre - “Franchetti-Salviani” of Città di Castello, State Technical and Technological Institute “Alessandro Volta” of Perugia, Higher Artistic, Classical, Professional Education of Orvieto); 6 Local Authorities, such as Municipality of Foligno, which is also partner of the project, and the Municipalities of Perugia, Terni, Todi, Orvieto and Città di Castello.

The Forum – a two days of meeting, debate, sharing and interchange of experiences – will gather about 120 students and 45 teachers of the secondary schools, together with 25 Local Authorities representatives coming from the seven European Countries involved in the Project.

The objective of first day of the event is to draft the Charter. The students together with  teachers, Local Authorities representatives and the facilitators of participatory processes will present the territorial proposals developed during these months of activities of the project and will share their intents for the draft of the final document. Later, during the second day of the Forum, high level national and international speakers will present the waste food and right to food topics and the students together with Local Authorities representatives will in plenary present the “DON'T WASTE OUR FUTURE 2015” Charter.   

The Charter, a political programmatic document of supranational interest, will be realized through a participatory process that will involve firstly the young generations together with institutional representatives of the Local Authorities involved; and will have the participation of associations and international ONG committed to waste food and right to food matters.

The session will proceed with a round table on “the political commitment of the European Institutions regarding the DON'T WASTE OUR FUTURE 2015 Charter”, an important moment of debate and commitment assumption by institutional figures in response to the requests presented by Youngsters and Local Authorities. Representatives of the main national and European institutions will participate to this session.

During the same time of the Forum, the Meeting of Local Authorities will be held, an opportunity of debate and experiences exchange between European Local Authorities that has the objective of defining strategies and common practices able to orient the national and local politics against food waste and to promote concrete actions in their respective territories of the seven countries involved in the Project. In particular, the debate will focus on the practices used in the distribution and catering chain; and on consumer behavior, caused first of all by the lack of awareness on the matter and by its complexity.

The “DON'T WASTE OUR FUTURE” project is promoted by FELCOS Umbria in collaboration with 10 partners from seven different European countries (Italy, Belgium Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, United Kingdom and France), and its objective is to improve critical comprehension, the accountability and the leading role of young citizens and of the European local authorities regarding food waste, the right to food and the its role connected to those matters.

To achieve its objective, the project operates on two complementary levels: on one hand, developing didactic activities, with primary and secondary schools in the seven countries involved, about the themes of food waste, responsible consumption and future changing agents; on the other hand, it promotes an awareness path and good practices exchange with Local Authorities and other public, private and associative of the involved territories for the promotion of concrete actions for the waste reduction. In particular, the educative action involves 40 secondary schools and about 1400 students from the seven European countries; in Umbria, 200 students from 8 secondary schools and 250 students from 10 primary schools were involved.