Celebrate the World Food Day 2021 with us!
The huge environmental and nutritional challenges we face, exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis and the subsequent economic and social impacts, put our global food systems at risk. Food waste, in particular, continues to exhaust natural resources and generates greenhouse gas emissions. The packaging sector plays a key role in the safe delivery of food and essential goods, protects products by preventing breakage, spoilage, contamination, increases product shelf life, and in that sense helps preventing food waste.
Work on food waste has also started on the side of the European Commission. Recently, on 1st October, DG SANTE launched a roadmap consultation on its proposed initiative to develop legally binding food waste reduction targets as part of the review of the EU Waste Framework Directive.
To contribute to these efforts and to celebrate the World Food Day (scheduled on 16 October), EUROPEN has decided to partner with JA Europe, a non-profit organisation dedicated to preparing young people for employment and entrepreneurship, and EIT Food, to organise a three-day Foodathon (food hackathon) from 13 to 15 October. The Foodathon aims to raise awareness on the major challenges of the agri-food system, and will give the chance to +100 young people from across Europe and Africa to develop innovative solutions to respond to three main challenges:
- Food loss and food waste
- Healthy nutrition
- Sustainable agriculture
EUROPEN and several of its members, including Ferrero, Groupe Bel, Huhtamaki, Mayr-Melnhof Karton and Unilever, will contribute to the project supporting students’ work in the Food Loss and Food Waste challenge, for which students will be asked to develop feasible and realistic ideas of products or services aiming to reduce food waste during production, along supply chains and by the consumer.
A winning team for each of the three challenges will be selected and awarded during a virtual ceremony on 15 October, which you will be welcome to attend! Click here to register to the ceremony.
WHAT DID YOU MISS?
- 26-28 July 2021: UN Food Systems Pre-Summit
- 23 September 2021: UN Food Systems Summit
- 29 September 2021: International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste
WHAT'S NEXT?
- 01-29 October 2021: European Commission roadmap consultation on Food waste reduction targets
- 16 October 2021: World Food Day: Building a Zero Hunger Generation
- Q4 2021: Publication of the European Commission proposal on EU food supply and food security contingency plan is expected by the end of the year.