Food Systems and Nutrition Education
Lesson Plans
Grades9, 10, 11, 12Earth and Space Sciences, Economics
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Provided by Center for Ecoliteracy
What it is
- This framework supports practitioners in exploring food systems and nutrition education, then focuses on food waste reduction as a way to strengthen the sustainability of school food systems.
- It reviews recent California laws affecting food waste, explains the three approaches of reduce, recover, and recycle, and profiles strategies such as offer versus serve, share tables, plate waste studies, the Smarter Lunchrooms Movement, and recess before lunch.
- It includes three case studies from Lompoc, San Diego, and Oakland school districts, a curated resource list, and a high school card-sorting activity in which students rank food waste reduction strategies by economic savings, waste diverted, and greenhouse gas emissions prevented.
Teaching tips
Classroom Implementation:
- This is a practitioner-facing framework rather than a single student lesson; the Understanding Food Waste Strategies activity and its printable strategy cards are the classroom-ready component.
- For the card activity, have students first predict the ranking of strategies before flipping the cards to check their guesses, then discuss which results surprised them and why prevention strategies such as portion sizing tend to outperform recycling.
- Use the reduce, recover, and recycle framework to help students categorize actions at their own school and identify where the greatest impact could be made.
Options for Action:
- Have students audit their school cafeteria, brainstorm potential strategies that would improve its environmental sustainability, and refine them with input from cafeteria staff.
- Connect the activity to civic and economic reasoning by having students weigh cost, labor, and local conditions before recommending a strategy to school decision-makers.
From the scientist review
This resource presents a collection of activities, case studies and teaching resources focused on food systems and nutrition. Climate change is a major focus in many of the included resources. This resource is well-sourced, with a comprehensive list of references, and is recommended for teaching.
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