CHALLENGE 1 A
OBJECTIVES
Different kinds of food with similar nutritional value can have very different environmental impact, so making responsible choices can make a difference. It is important to do specific research about the CO2 footprint of each of the products we consume. For example, a vegetarian diet has a lower footprint than a normal one since livestock produces a lot of greenhouse gases and requires a lot of resources to feed.
ACTIVITY
Today you will find out the climate impact of what you eat and drink. Choose products you eat and drink, select how often you have them and explore how your consumption over an entire year is contributing to your annual greenhouse gas emissions. Visualize your results using infographics.
CHALLENGE 1 B
OBJECTIVES
Sustainable gardening means gardening in a smart and eco-friendly way. It is all about giving back to mother nature by using organic growing methods so you use less chemicals and adopt more greener alternatives when you are at home. Food produced in a sustainable garden is rich in terms of both nutrients and taste!
ACTIVITY
Turn your windowsill into a kitchen garden. No matter how little space you have, there are plenty of things you can grow yourself cheaply and easily. Herbs such as parsley, mint or basil require very little space to grow and can really help transform your dishes. Watch the following video and start growing your own lush basil, parsley, and other tasty herbs.
CHALLENGE 1C
OBJECTIVES
Did you know that you can actually grow new plants from common food scraps that are so often destined for the garbage or compost bin? The stems, butts and seeds from many common fruits and vegetables can be turned into a fresh new crop with soil, water, sunlight and a little know-how.
ACTIVITY
Here are 12 grocery-store staples you can easily grow more of at home from the food scraps you already have. Your task will be to reduce your food waste and get fresh produce at your fingertips.
CHALLENGE 1D
OBJECTIVES
A sustainable food system (SFS) is a food system that delivers food security and nutrition for all in such a way that the economic, social and environmental bases to generate food security and nutrition for future generations are not compromised.
This means that:
– It is profitable throughout (economic sustainability);
– It has broad-based benefits for society (social sustainability); and
– It has a positive or neutral impact on the natural environment (environmental sustainability).
In this challenge, you will begin at a grocery store where farm products are bought and sold. Explore a sustainable farm and learn about soil conservation, crop rotation, and water pollution. Visit a waste facility and learn how fertile soil is created from waste products. Walk through a recycling facility and learn how old packaging is recycled into new packaging. Visit the shop where the farm products are being packaged and sold back to the grocery store.
ACTIVITY
Using Minecraft, you will explore sustainable food production. Please check the following link.
CHALLENGE 1E
OBJECTIVES
With the FLOSN ( FRESH, LOCAL, ORAGNIC, SUSTAINABLE, NUTRITIOUS) criteria as your guide, prepare a healthy, delicious and nutritious meal for you and your family or housemates for dinner tonight.
ACTIVITY
- Look for as many fresh, local, organic, seasonal, nutritious ingredients as you have on hand. Gather what you find. Come up with a menu including dfand if you are feeling ambitious, a great dessert.
- Look up recipes that include your key ingredients. Check out Thrive Market’s website and the Vegetarian Times Recipes for inspiration.
- Create a story/photo essay with photos and/or video (up to 90 seconds) about your process including meal prep and recipes for what is sure to be a great meal.
CHALLENGE 1F
OBJECTIVES
Plant-based eating is rapidly growing in popularity, and for good reason! 31% of Americans now practice meat-free days. The community of foodies, chefs, bloggers, Instagrammers, YouTubers and content creators dedicated to plant-based living is flourishing online and around the world. Noted chefs, restaurants, businesses and grocery stores are rising to meet consumer demand by creating and providing ever-increasing plant-based options.
ACTIVITY
There is no better time than the present to explore fantastic plant-based foods!
Watch this video on “How to veganize ANYTHING” and then read this article about “How to Make Anything Vegan” for inspiration.
- Think about a menu for one day including breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Do some research to find out how you would make these meals plant-based.
- Curate a one-day menu with recipes for plant-based versions of those meals. If you are already plant-based, create one for a friend who regularly consumes animal products.
CHALLENGE 1G
OBJECTIVES
According to the World Food Programme, one third of all food produced worldwide (1.3 billion tons) is never consumed. This means that one third of the resources used for food production are also wasted.
ACTIVITY
It is important to plan ahead when buying food and to ensure you store all your food properly so it doesn’t spoil. Saving leftovers for future meals and creating recipes that make the most of ingredients is also a good idea. Today you will create leftovers recipes.
CHALLENGE 1H
OBJECTIVES
Chocolate has gotten a bad rap for its environmental impacts—particularly deforestation, as farmers cut down older trees in order to clear room for cacao plants.
ACTIVITY
Conduct a study on a cocoa growing country of your choice. Research the climate, the weather, working conditions and native wildlife. How will the climate crisis impact your country in the next 50 years? How will this affect the people who live there? Create a poster of your findings.
CHALLENGE 1I
OBJECTIVES
More than a million people in the UK live in “food deserts” – neighbourhoods where poverty, poor public transport and a dearth of big supermarkets severely limit access to affordable fresh fruit and vegetables.
Food deserts- regions where people have limited access to healthful and affordable food
Food swamps- places where unhealthy foods are more accessible than anything else
Food equity- the expansive concept that all people have the ability and opportunity to grow and to consume healthful, affordable, and culturally significant foods
ACTIVITY
You have been asked to design an education campaign to help those who live in the food desert understand the importance of eating healthy foods and tips for accessing healthy foods and selecting affordable healthy foods when on a budget. Make a virtual walking tour using Google Maps Street View and Screencastify or Screencast-o-Matic, craft your campaign message and use multiple channels to promote your campaign.
Check these additional resources.
CHALLENGE 1J
OBJECTIVES
People hear a lot about climate change, and while they see dramatic changes in the weather and hear fearful forecasts for what the future may bring, few people understand what they can do about it. And yet, for many people, food might be the best place to start. Food offers everyone the opportunity to see the impacts of their diet not only on their health, but on the planet.
ACTIVITY
Welcome to the “FOOD CHOICES FOR A HEALTHY PLANET” game! This game was designed to raise awareness about the impacts our food choices have on our own health, but also the environment, climate change and the cultures in which we live.
CHALLENGE 1K
OBJECTIVES
When you want somebody’s opinion, you ask for it. Right? That is easy enough when you are just dealing with one or a few people. But what if you want to know the opinion of an entire school or an entire town? Getting an answer out of everyone in your school or town is nearly impossible. So how do you get an idea of what these people think? You use a survey. A survey is a way of collecting information that you hope represents the views of the whole community or group in which you are interested.
ACTIVITY
Conducting surveys can be done very simply, or it can be very complicated, depending on how much you want to ask on the survey and the number of people to whom it is administered. Your task will be to conduct a survey on the planetary health diet using Microsoft Forms or Google Forms.
Check these resources before you start creating your questions.
CHALLENGE 1L
OBJECTIVES
Words are the building blocks for new ideas. What words come to mind when you think of sustainable food?
ACTIVITY
Create digital flashcards ( a piece of card that has a cue or hint on the front side, and a corresponding answer on the back side) using https://www.brainscape.com and share them with your teacher and friends.
CHALLENGE 1M
OBJECTIVES
A Life Cycle Assessment is a tool that takes into consideration all of the steps that go into the creation of a product including inputs and outputs and assesses the potential environmental impacts associated with those inputs and outputs from cradle (acquisition of raw materials) to its grave (waste management). In this activity you are going to explore and diagram the production, transportation and consumption cycle of a tomato/potato. Think about what happens to a tomato or a potato from seed to table.
ACTIVITY
Describe the steps in the table below where the production column includes anything related to growing the tomato/potato. The transportation column has to do with any point along the life of the tomato/potato. The use column should include anything related to storing, preparation, eating or waste. Make sure to include the by-products and/or outputs that result from each of the phases at the bottom. For example, in the production phase, chemical run-off from fertilizer use is a by-product of the growing process.
CHALLENGE 1N
OBJECTIVES
Subscription boxes have emerged as a new trend in the consumer goods market. According to the results of a consumer survey carried out with UK shoppers, food boxes were the most popular service, with about 30 percent of those surveyed buying subscription boxes in this category.
ACTIVITY
Your task will be to prepare full meal subscription boxes for vegetarians and vegans. Remember to include ingredients that are fresh, local, organic, seasonal and nutritious, choose eco-friendly packing solutions and decide how you will price your product.
CHALLENGE 1O
OBJECTIVES
We are lucky to live in a world with an incredible variety of plant-based milk or non-dairy alternatives. With so many options overflowing the shelves of the grocery store, it is important to know the nutritional benefits of each, so you can make a decision that fits your dietary needs and allergy restrictions.
ACTIVITY
Your task will be to compare nutritional values of popular plant-based milks. Compile and collect different sources of information and make a spreadsheet in Excel.
CHALLENGE 1P
OBJECTIVES
Do you think plants can grow without soil? If you have tried growing veggetables, you probably planted the seeds or seedlings in soil. Soil gives the plants the nutrients they need to grow. However, plants can grow without soil too, using a process called hydroponics.
ACTIVITY
In this activity you will transform a two-liter water bottle into a mini-garden that needs only light, air and nutrient rich water to grow. Watch the following videos before you build your own hydroponic system.
CHALLENGE 1 R
OBJECTIVES
Aquaponics is a combination of aquaculture, which is growing fish and other aquatic animals, and hydroponics which is growing plants without soil. Aquaponics uses these two in a symbiotic combination in which plants are fed the aquatic animals’ discharge or waste. In return, the vegetables clean the water that goes back to the fish. Along with the fish and their waste, microbes play a key role in the nutrition of the plants. These beneficial bacteria gather in the spaces between the roots of the plant and convert the fish waste and the solids into substances the plants can use to grow. ( Permaculture News)
ACTIVITY
As aquaponics is one of the most sustainable ways to grow food, your task will be to set up an aquaponics system. Check the following websites before you start:
CHALLENGE 1S
OBJECTIVES
Food waste is a growing problem around the world. It is estimated that 1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted globally, 40 percent of which comes from restaurants and other food businesses. Landfills are overflowing with food that could have been repurposed, donated or composted, alongside other non-food service items such as napkins, paper plates, plastic cutlery, drawing paper and other disposable products.
On average at schools in Europe about ¼ of a child’s plate is wasted. A study in England showed that over a school year of 40 weeks, 55,408 tons of food were wasted in primary schools alone. The situation is not better in the US, where food waste makes up 51.3%-63% of the trash in school cafeterias, making it the biggest percentage of any material in the trash.
ACTIVITY
During 3 weeks, your team will monitor and track food waste at your school. The aim of this task is to collect and identify data and implement actions to reduce food waste with your team.
The International Food Waste Coalition created a fantastic Excel spreadsheet you can use to track your school’s canteen/ restaurant food waste. It is one of the most comprehensive spreadsheets I have found online.
CHALLENGE 1T
ACTIVITY
Imagine you are a journalist who is asked to write about food waste, and choose a style of magazine or newspaper you would have fun writing for (e.g. a tabloid, a broadsheet, a magazine aimed at young women, sports enthusiasts, children etc.). Think about what messages you want to emphasise for your particular target audience, and which language would be appropriate for your audience. You have one page to write (and if you want, illustrate) your article.
CHALLENGE 1U
OBJECTIVES
Did you know you can make brightly coloured clothes using fruits and veggies?
ACTIVITY
Gather at least one cup of leftover fruit and vegetable bits. Chop the fruits and veggies to allow more colour to saturate the dye. Add the chopped food scraps to a saucepan and cover with twice as much water as the food quantity. For one cup of scraps, use two cups of water. Bring the water to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for approximately one hour, or until the dye reaches the desired colour. Turn off the heat and let the water come to room temperature. Strain the cooled dye into a container. (Edible LA Magazine)
CHALLENGE 1V
The coffee industry is plagued by human right abuses and environmental issues, such as water pollution and habitat destruction. How can we grow more climate-friendly coffee? Measure the carbon footprint of your cup of coffee and think of 5 ways to shrink the carbon footprint of your coffee.
CHALLENGE 1W
OBJECTIVES
Climate change is likely to diminish continued progress on global food security through production disruptions that lead to local availability limitations and price increases, interrupted transport conduits, and diminished food safety, among other causes.
ACTIVITY
Your task is to examine the relationship between climate change and food security, looking specifically at how global warming impacts food production around the world. In Bangladesh for example, one of the countries with the highest number of climate refugees, the ability of people to grow their crops has been seriously affected by a changing climate. Present your findings as a written assignment or as an oral presentation.
CHALLENGE 1X
OBJECTIVES
Over the course of three years, Gregg Segal visited the United Arab Emirates, India, Malaysia, France, Germany, Italy, Senegal, Brazil and the United States to document children’s eating rituals. By focusing on the diets of children, whose lifelong eating habits are created in these formative years, Segal’s stunning photographs speak to themes of nutrition, class, and culture.
ACTIVITY
First, keep a diary of everything you eat in a week and then take photos of yourself surrounded by the food items. How does your weekly diet differ from what you can see in the photos taken by Segal?
CHALLENGE 1Y
OBJECTIVES
One of the main reasons for the increase in the amount of food we consume is the rise in global population. As global population and rates of consumption increase there is a need to increase water, food and energy supplies, but to do so in a sustainable manner to meet the needs of all people. The world population crossed 7.9 billion in 2022 (May), this puts increasing pressure upon resources.
ACTIVITY
Calculate the amount of food consumption at our current population level and what it would be in 10 years if no died. Then create infographics to explain the data.
CHALLENGE 1Z
Design your own challenge. Define all the objectives first and describe your main activity.
SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLE CHALLENGE 