DO NOT waste your food; think of those starving children in Africa. This is what a group of students from AIESEC want you to think about the next time you tuck into a meal.
An exhibition on food sustainability was held by AIESEC, a student organisation, at Canteen B from October 14th to 17th.
Food sustainability is having enough food we need, while being able to distribute food efficiently to various parts of the world, organisers said.
“Many think that donating is sufficient to help those dying of hunger in Africa,” said Tri Wira Efendi, 21, Organising Committee President for this year’s Project Based on Exchange (PBOX) on food sustainability. “We want to change that perception.”
The United Nations estimated that up to 862 million people are starving around the world, but Efendi said about 400,000 tonnes of food is wasted in Singapore annually.
The exhibition was held to coincide with World Food Day 2008 on October 16th. It displayed the facts and figures of food wastage and showcased a large jigsaw puzzle that students must piece together.
“We aim to have an outreach of 3000 people this year,” said Mayas Singh, 20, president of AIESEC Singapore.
First-year Material Science & Engineering student Lee Xin Yuan, 19, learnt a lot about food sustainability from the display. “I didn’t know we were so wasteful of food,” she said.
The vivid pictures of malnourished people in developing countries made first-year Chinese student Tan Zhi Bin “quite traumatised”. But she agreed that more can be done to help those deprived of food.
AIESEC reached out to 100 people through the display, and hopes there will be more related events to come next semester.
Said Efendi: “We want to persuade school canteens to charge varied prices for different-sized portions, to give students an incentive not to waste food.”
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