Reducing food waste is, nowadays, an ethical, social, environmental and economic objective.
The theme of food waste has become increasingly pivotal in the scientific debate, during recent years, and now it is an integral part of international and European policies about sustainability. This is confirmed by the growing number of publications and the recurring reference to the topic within the programming documents of the European Commission and of relevant international organizations (FAO, UNEP, USDA, G20).

In September 2015, the goal of halving food waste by 2030 was formally adopted by the United Nations General Assembly as part of the so-called “2030 Agenda” (Objective 12.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals): an objective taken on by the European Commission, through the recent package on the Circular Economy, as well as by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the United States. Within this framework, many European Countries have already launched actions and programs aimed at understanding and countering the phenomenon, including Italy, with its own specific legislation (Gadda Law n. 166/16). Despite the programmatic lines of intervention adopted by our country, the road ahead is still long and arduous. We are aware that legislation and programmatic actions alone are not enough, if they are not accompanied by bottom-up actions meant to raise effective awareness of the phenomenon of food waste, with the direct involvement of young generations and their families, in order to lay the foundations for an appropriate culture of food, its consumption, its conservation, and its recovery.

The volunteering project was therefore born with the specific objective of starting a new project with the direct involvement of four young volunteers aged between 18 and 29, currently excluded from the job market and the education system (from Albania, France, Spain and Tunisia) aimed at educating and making young people, as well as the local community, more aware in the context of “food waste”, promoting the values of sharing, recovery, and solidarity.

The general objective of the new project, co-designed with the active and proactive contribution of the four aspiring volunteers and their respective supporting organizations, is to make the younger generations aware of the adoption of sustainable and responsible lifestyles, contrasting the increasingly widespread “disposable waste culture”.

How? Activating, promoting, and spreading coordinated measures to combat food waste, sharing information, education, and awareness actions to operate in terms of prevention and adoption of sustainable and responsible lifestyles, with the direct involvement of the local community. We are aware that a large part of the fight against food waste has its bases in education, which can increase consumers’ awareness and lead their habits towards waste reduction. On the basis of this assumption, we have therefore decided to inaugurate a new volunteering project, intended as a path to raise awareness on the issue of food waste in the local community, directly involving the young generations and their families, in order to lay the foundations for an appropriate culture of food, its consumption, its conservation, and its recovery.