The Good Cause Of The Month: Small Change, Big Difference

Press event.

As you know, every month I introduce a charity organisation on my blog in order to raise awareness for them. Since I have this fantastic platform, my blog, I try to use it to support good causes too. This month, I’d like to introduce: Small Change, Big Difference.

A few weeks ago, I was invited to a great event organised by Ethical Influencers and hosted by The Sustainable Food Story and Small Change, Big Difference. This event was a zero waste cookery class that I really enjoyed as I’m on my mission to eliminate food waste in my own kitchen as well as to inspire others to do the same. Of course, it’s impossible to eliminate food waste completely, but with little little effort, we can drastically reduce it.

Why is it so important to reduce food waste?

Food waste – as we have probably all heard it lately on the news is a major contributor to climate change. Between 33-50% of all food produced globally is never eaten and that is a staggering figure. Which means that we waste lots of energy, resources and of course  it’s also a moral problem. It’s not just about starving people somewhere else it’s also an economical problem for all of us. Our food supply system is now globalised, the simple demand-supply system looks like this: the same demand for of Western countries for food will drive up the price of food grown for export in developing countries. It also exhaust natural resources which leads to accelerated degradation of natural habitats.

Composting is a good thing, but it’s not always an option (especially if you live in a city and you don’t have a garden) but not creating that food waste in the first place is much better for the environment. I wrote about this earlier and gave tips on how to reduce food waste at home.

About Small Change, Big Difference

Small Change, Big Difference is a London-wide campaign aimed at tackling food waste. In London households alone around 910,00 tonnes of food is wasted every year. Small Change, Big Difference aims to promote healthy sustainable food and encourage Londoners to increase their food waste recycling while also reducing the amount of food wasted.

Not only is reducing food waste good for the planet but it’s good for your purse strings too! By using what you’ve already got and being savvy with ingredients to make delicious meals the average family could save up to £70 a month.

One of the ways that Small Change, Big Difference has been encouraging Londoners to get savvy with their food is through a range of 30 cookery workshops teaching key cookery skills and providing great tips on how to reduce the amount of food that they waste.

About the cookery workshop

So along I went to learn a bit more about reducing waste in the kitchen. The cookery class was running by Abi and Sadhbh of The Sustainable Food Story at The Skip Garden, a revolutionary moveable community garden made from recycled materials based in Kings Cross. 

We have learnt a lot about how to make delicious, healthy, waste free vegan food at home, why and how to eat less meat, use up leftovers -generally just get virtuous with our food. And my doing this, make a genuine difference to the planet. 

We made pumpkin soup, a quinoa salad (and what you see on the photos is not kale, it’s the green leaves of the cauliflower, which we’d normally won’t use!) and banana bread. Veg in season, wonky veg, parts we would normally just throw away (we put the roasted skin of the pumpkin into the soup), old potatoes, brown bananas, foraged berries, yesterday’s bread – all turned into delicious meal. 

Abi and Sadhbh are the most inspiring young women: scientists, farmers and chefs and teachers just to mention a few occupations between the two of them. Together they run supper clubs and workshops on how to change our eating habits for a more sustainable and planet-friendly diet and how to create less waste. (I’m telling you guys, these kikckass, young folks will change the future for the best, so there is hope.)

What we took home from the event

• You don’t need to become a vegan. But a drastic change is necessary
• By putting the sliced bread straight in the freezer and just taking the slices out to toast them as we need them we could save 2,600,000 slices from the bin EVERY DAY
• Even the roasted skin of the pumpkin can go into the pumpkin soup
• This vegan banana bread recipe is super simple and great way to use up old bananas
• Old potatoes are safe to eat, even after they’ve sprouted, just remove the sprouts
• So many scraps, peels and pieces can go into a broth: stage stalks, tops of the fennel, onion and garlic skins, carrot peels