The educational project ‘Let’s play not wasting together: all-women’s entrepreneurial anti-waste projects’, promoted by the Milan Sant’Ambrogio Zonta Club, was presented at an encounter in the Cascina Triulza on October 10. The contributions of experts and businesswomen were directed above all to young people, in order to show them – through game playing, using a version of ‘snakes and ladders’ – the strategies which can be used against food waste. Speakers included Fernanda Gallo and Elena Federici of the Milan Sant’Ambrogio Zonta Club, Silvia Nutini, Anna Podestà, Maria Grazia Rizzoli and Francesca Santolini from the Zonta Club in Parma, Francesca De Bernardi, Elisabetta Bertoldi andGiuliana Malaguti of the Zonta DonnaDonaDonna 2015 Prize and Food Bank, and Leonida Cussotto of the Rapallo volunteer consultancy. All the participants did their best to involve visitors to Expo in discussions on the best strategies for obtaining more resources for improving the quality of life of those in need.

 

Teaching children to recognize the role of women

“Zonta is an association which works to promote women’s empowerment, and to help and highlight women who work in predominantly male sectors”, Silvia Nutini explained. “It has always been women who transform food and preserve it to feed their families. This is an aspect which must be understood by future generations if change is to be generated and bring with it more respect and sustainability in everyone’s lives.”

 

The Good Samaritan: an anti-waste project

As an example of encouraging children’s awareness of solidarity issues, Leonida Cussotto described the “Good Samaritan” project currently operating in the city of Rapallo. “The Good Samaritan project was launched in 2013 and involves volunteers, associations, municipalities and hotels”, she explained. “It started out on a small scale, but now involves 35 families, three hotels, 7 confectionary establishments and bakeries, all committed to distributing healthy and unblemished food whose commercial value has expired.”

 

The role of the Food Bank in Expo Milano 2015

On the subject of food recovery in Expo, Giuliana Malaguti illustrated the experience of the Banco Alimentare, or Food Bank, in Italy: “Many people in our country, who have suffered from the economic crisis, benefit from food brought to their homes, or discretely served by parishes or local help centers. Six million needy people, including a million children, received support from Food Banks. “Expo is a complex mechanism”, continued Malaguti “which does not generate large quantities of waste, but a moderate amount day by day. Within the Expo Site, the Banco Alimentare organizes food collections by refrigerated bicycles. During the night, the state and quality of what has been collected is carefully checked, and everything that passes the checks is distributed to two communities in the Bovisa area which care for Syrian refugees. So far we have distributed 22 tons of food, which to some people may not sound like much, but we are proud of it.” The conference promoted by the Milan Sant’Ambrogio Zonta Club concluded by emphasizing the importance of sharing experiences and best practices in order to facilitate future projects and the evolution of political and educational strategies aimed at overcoming the social crisis caused by food insecurity.