Picture caption: Donna Heath, CAW’s National Sustainability Champion.
The Culinary Association of Wales has appointed a National Sustainability Champion to take forward Worldchefs initiatives across Wales to inspire sustainable food consumption.
Donna Heath, a hospitality training officer at award-winning work-based training provider Cambrian Training Company in Welshpool, is looking forward to her role which will see her work closely with schools, colleges and businesses.
She will promote and implement the Worldchefs Feed the Planet programmes, which include the Food Heroes Challenge, Food Waste Challenge and the Sustainability Curriculum.
Feed the Planet aims to inspire sustainable food consumption among communities and professionals and to support people in need through emergency relief, food poverty alleviation and education. Founded by Worldchefs, the initiative is run in partnership with Electrolux and AIESEC.
Worldchefs is promoting the programmes because one third of the food produced around the world currently goes to waste while 800 million people go to bed hungry.
The Food Heroes Challenge is a chef-driven education project for children. Using a toolkit developed through the UNICEF sustainability initiative, World’s Largest Lesson, schoolchildren, aged between eight and 12, are taught sustainable eating habits.
The initiative is designed to help inspire the next generation to eat sustainably. The
70-minute workshop includes activities, videos, workbook materials and a Food Hero award.
The Sustainability Curriculum involves a series of seven, two-hour workshops developed by Worldchefs to explore in detail the topics of food, energy, water and waste on a global, regional and local level. The curriculum is targeted at businesses and culinary colleges.
The Food Waste Challenge is designed to help businesses identify how they can reduce their food waste and set targets to work towards.
“My role is to raise awareness of these three initiatives across Wales,” said Donna, 33. “I am now in the process of contacting primary schools to gauge interest in the Food Heroes Challenge.
“By creating the resources in both English and Welsh, we have made it possible for schools to deliver the Food Heroes Challenge themselves, or we are happy to visit the classroom.
“Having a seven-year-old daughter, Amy, I am passionate about sustainability and making children responsible for their future. Sustainability is a very hot topic with the global debate about climate change and reducing plastic waste.”
Arwyn Watkins, OBE, Culinary Association of Wales president, said the association was taking the lead to increase engagement from chefs, educational establishments and Welsh Government policy leads in the Worldchefs Feed the Planet programmes in Wales.
“We have followed up the call to action from Worldchefs by appointing Donna as our National Sustainability Champion and she is now putting in place a process to roll out the Food Heroes Challenge to a limited number of schools in Wales,” he added.
“This will be our pilot year to help deliver on the World’s Largest Lesson and our members are being encouraged to support Donna to roll out this initiative in their local communities.”
Wales-based schools, businesses or colleges interested in finding out more about the Worldchefs Feed the Planet programmes are asked to contact Donna on 01938 555 893 or email donna@cambriantraining.com.
For more information, please contact Arwyn Watkins, OBE, Culinary Association of Wales president, on Tel: 01938 555893 or Duncan Foulkes, publicity officer, on Tel: 01686 650818.
