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We are all creatures of habit – we have ‘our way of doing things’, our ‘usuals’ – would you agree? How about food habits – what are yours? ‘I always have a KitKat at break time', ‘I choose cheese and onion crisps every Wednesday’, ‘I like dried fruit snacks when I come home from school’, ‘I buy a ‘Fruit Shoot’ drink after football’, ‘I normally have a Cheese string in my packed lunch’ …. Tackling Climate Change means we ALL need to make changes to how we live and the choices we make - we need to be willing to ‘mix it up’ and change some of our habits!
Young Climate Warriors are challenged this week to be brave and adventurous – to create some ‘mix it up’ snacks – that aren’t made in a factory and don’t need throw-away packaging! (Please ask your parent/carer to supervise your ‘snack making’.) How about some formidable fruit snacks – bananas with ‘cartoon faces’ drawn on them, sliced orange smiley mouths, fruit kebabs? Some cheesy champions – make your own cheese squares, or cream cheese nibbles on broken crackers? Delectable drinks - a thermos of hot chocolate, fruit squash, or even homemade lemonade? Pop your own ‘corn’ in a saucepan – don’t forget the lid! Bake some chocolate cookies (with Fairtrade chocolate – see below!), or some shortbread stars … the possibilities are endless if you’re willing to ‘mix it up a bit’!
What about all those wrappers – how many have you ‘avoided’ this week? Every throwaway wrapper - whether it’s made from plastic, foil, paper or cotton – is made in a factory, which requires raw materials (mining, cleaning and processing all use energy) as well as the energy used for manufacturing and transportation – all these stages produce carbon emissions causing climate change. Do you think we can just swap one type of single-use packaging for another? Ideally, we need to use less packaging – full stop, but did you know you can now recycle ‘soft plastics’ - bread bags, frozen food bags, crisp packets, pet food pouches, chocolate wrappers … at over 4,000 supermarkets in the UK – find your nearest depot at Recyclenow.com.
If you’re buying ingredients this week look out for the ‘Fairtrade’ logo. Fairtrade means paying farmers a fairer price for their produce, which in turn means they have more resources to help them invest in sustainable farming practices and adapt to our changing climate. To learn more about why we should try and make Fairtrade choices you could watch this short 4 minute film – ‘Weathering the Storm with Fairtrade’.
Remember to HIT THE RED BUTTON– and let your voice be heard – when you have ‘mixed it up a bit’ – cutting your carbon emissions by avoiding pre-packed snacks.
