ence. Climate change and other environmental issues can be very complex. Some of the solutions require government decision-making, new technologies, and major cultural shifts. Nevertheless, preventing food waste in your commu- nity can make a huge impact, and you and your students can make a difference starting right now. Together, we are learning to value food, how it nourishes


us as well as how healthy food systems make for a healthy planet. There are three primary goals for the creation and implementation of the action kit.


Knowledge is Power This kit is geared towards helping youth understand how food waste impacts our planet.


Shift Behavior The kit’s aim is to show youth activities to implement at school, home, or their communities to pre- vent food waste, thereby helping


change their attitudes about food and encouraging them to develop new habits and skills.


Spread the Word The FMAK platform enables youth to share their food waste actions and tips with others to solve the problem collectively with communities across North America.


The Food Matters Action Kit achieves these objectives by exposing kids and youth to new ideas and new concepts like “ugly food,” “garbology,” and “food waste audits,” which we will talk more about later.


The solution: Why taking action matters Educating children and youth about food waste can encour-


age them to live sustainably and shape their habits into adulthood. By shopping more thoughtfully and cooking more creatively; by salvaging, preserving, and sharing food; and by ensuring that food scraps get composted or re-pur- posed and not sent to a landfill, we are saving water, energy, and land as well as helping to fight climate change. At the Commission for Environmental Cooperation


(CEC) we created the Food Matters Action Kit to help educators like you support youth in making a difference. The Kit features dozens of fun and impactful activities and tips to better equip youth with the knowledge and tools they need to make changes at home and within their communities. Better yet, it is free. All you have to do is download it.


Or if you would like a print copy for your classroom you can contact us and we will mail one to you while supplies last. Look to the Kit for dozens of inspiring


ways for educators to explore and discover how to prevent food waste. You could teach kids how to conduct a simple home food waste audit. Or they could learn food pres- ervation techniques from Indigenous elders and share their learnings in class. They could even come together to build worm composters and solar dehydrators.


Activities in the kit are designed for youth across North


America, from ages 5 to 25, to start making a positive differ- ence right now to prevent food waste, anything from small initiatives at home to more ambitious efforts that involve the whole community. The activities in the kit are arranged in two groups: Part 1: Kids Action Kit for ages 5–13, and Part 2: Youth Action Kit for ages 14–25.


The method: Tools to address food waste in the classroom The activities in the Food Matters Action Kit range in com- plexity and are suitable for a variety of ages and abilities. Each activity has an easy-to-follow layout with the follow- ing components:


• Brief lesson • Estimated time • Tools/items needed • Making it happen • Want to do more? • Claim points to get the badges


That’s why we’ve also put together an additional free down- loadable Activity Guide for school teachers like you to consult to find the right activity for your class. It will help you chose suitable activities that meet your grade level curriculums. Here are three examples of activities you can do with


your classroom and adapt to young children as well as youth. Every activity in Part I has an equivalent activity in Part II for older kids. For example, “Garbology 101” for kids becomes “Garbology 201” for youth, and assists you in showing how to conduct a food waste audit following a series of simple steps.


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