The Hungarian Food Bank Association and Coca-Cola Hungary's #YouthEmpowered programme jointly develop an online learning material to help reduce food waste in Hungary

While food prices continue to rise, an average person in Hungary still produces nearly 65 kg of food waste every year at home. Among other things, light is being shed upon this in the new online learning material developed jointly by the Hungarian Food Bank Association and Coca-Cola Hungary's #YouthEmpowered programme. Available free of charge on www.enjovom.hu, the food waste-focused educational material aims to support users in preventing food waste with various tips and tricks, and also includes separate chapters on the most common life situations that lead to food waste and how to avoid them. 

Launched in 2017, the #YouthEmpowered programme is primarily aimed at helping young people aged 16-35 to find their way on the labour market. The programme supports participants in finding a job, choosing a career, changing careers, or starting a business by providing free self-learning and skills development materials and small group face-to-face workshops, while all online learning materials are available on www.enjovom.hu. Over the past years, the programme's target groups and, at the same time, its online learning materials have grown: through its partners, it now helps disadvantaged young people, as well as secondary school students, university students, mothers, jobseekers with disabilities and young people thinking of starting their own business, with learning materials ranging from self-awareness to basic legal skills. 

The curriculum, developed in partnership with the Hungarian Food Bank Association, aims to raise awareness of the importance of preventing food waste, while supports several target groups of the #YouthEmpowered programme with personalised ideas to prevent generating food waste in the first place. The world produces 1.3 billion tons of excess food every year. According to the Hungarian Food Bank Association, the amount of food waste produced by households can be reduced by up to 50 percent, by possibly more than 30 kilograms per person, through simple solutions and a community approach, thus contributing significantly to a more sustainable environment.

After a general introductory section, the curriculum includes five smaller chapters, including specific tips for the following situations:

• what a student living in a flat or dormitory, who is not used to cooking, can do to prevent food waste,
• how a parent with young children, who runs a large household should shop and plan ahead,
• what a worker can do if it is important to avoid food waste at work,
• how employers can encourage their employees to avoid wasting food,
• and how a small catering business can effectively reduce food waste.

The learning material also describes the most common situations and mistakes that lead to food waste, the chapters present multiple ways to use food creatively, compost waste, implement cost-effective solutions and encourage others to avoid waste. The authors of the curriculum also provide free downloadable supplementary materials to help learners. 

The new curriculum is available free of charge to anyone who registers and clicks on the link: https://enjovom.hu/tananyagok/mit-tehetunk-az-elelmiszerpazarlas-ellen

To find out more about #YouthEmpowered and the programme’s online modules, please go to: www.enjovom.hu