First European Forum on Young and Local Authorities against Food Waste and for Global Right to Food

Elaborated the “Don't Waste Our Future” Charter

PHOTO: The moment of the Charter elaboration

On the 21st and 22nd of October, about 120 students and 45 teachers from secondary schools met with 25 Local Authorities Representatives from seven European countries (Italy, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, United Kingdom and France), representing more than 50 municipalities and 40 educational institutes involved in the project ' DON'T WASTE OUT FUTURE!,' in Milan for the 1^st European Forum of young and Local Authorities against food waste and for global right to food and to draft the European Charter against food waste.

Organized by FELCOS Umbria and with the patronage of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and of the Active Citizenship Network (ACN Network), the Forum represented the point of arrival of a Development Education path that, through the implementation of more than 170 events - such as didactic modules, workshops and participatory workshops- witnessed youngsters and Local Authorities as protagonists in the debate and the fight against food waste. This, in turn, led to the elaboration of the Charter “Don't Waste Our Future 2015 – A joint European manifesto of young and Local Authorities to promote food easte reduction and the global right to food”.

In particular, eight secondary schools in Umbria took part in the project: Higher Professional and Technical-Commercial Education Institute “A.Casagrande – F.Cesi” of Terni; High School specializing in classical studies “F.Frezzi-Beata Angela” of Foligno; Higher Education Institute “Orfini” of Foligno, the Association CNOS FAP of Foligno; Higher Education Institute “Ciuffelli-Einaudi” of Todi; 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 also participated, such as the Municipality of Foligno, partner of the project as well, and the Municipalities of Perugia, Terni, Todi, Orvieto and Città di Castello.

During the Forum, consisting of two days of meetings, debates, sharing and interchange of experiences, students along with teachers and Local Authorities representatives presented and shared their territorial proposals to fight food waste drafted during the months of operation of the Project to be applied in the final version of the Charter.

After the participatory sessions on Wednesday 21st of October, the Document was presented to the rest of the Europe from Cascina Triulza on the next day. National and international high-level speakers, among whom were present Antonio Cutolo, from the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) – that underlined the necessity of extending a project of this scale to the rest of the Italian schools; Julia Heyl, from the Save Food FAO Initiative, Gemma Aguado from the UNDP/ART Initiative, Camelia Bucatariu from FAO, and Joris Depouillon from Food Surplus Entrepreneurs Network, emphasized in their speeches the importance of this path directed at the common challenge on national, European and international levels; students and Local Authorities representatives presented the “DON'T WASTE OUR FUTURE 2015” Charter in plenary.

Intervening in the various stages of the food chain: from production to distribution; acting on the individual consumer behavior and promoting urgent legislative changes that can allow and facilitate the recovery of fresh and cooked food in the supermarkets and in collective catering; the redistribution of expiring food; and encouraging the use of doggy bags in restaurants. As well as promoting strategies that support the consumer-producer link, short supply chain and circular economy; intervening on local and global agri-food systems to give food back its real value and go beyond the concept of food as “merchandise”; facilitate the cooperation among territories and sustainable development models, through the introduction of development education topics in schools and the awareness of civil society.

These are just some of the seventy proposals contained in the European Charter against food waste, a tool for individual and collective commitment, and at the same time, for pressure towards national and supranational institutions, that contains principles, responsibilities, concrete actions and requests for the fight against food waste and for the promotion of the global right to food pointed at young citizens, governments, European institutions and citizens, from today on actively involved in their territories, focused on the elaborated points in the Document.

In an extraordinary moment of comparison and dialogue, collaboration and synergy, a European Alliance of Young, Schools, Local Authorities and strategic actors against food waste and for the promotion of sustainable development models and lifestyles was built; having the merit of facilitating the rapprochement of youngsters and the world of institutions in such a way that the former feel and consider themselves responsible agents and protagonists of change, capable of influencing the choices made by the communities in which they live in.

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