Reports

2019

After business as usual and our A.G.M we began an evening of fun arranged by Margaret Osborne, who gave us all an equal number of ‘gaming chips’ each valued at the fantasy amount of £1000.00 and then began a fast and furious game of roulette where we each attempted to win a vast amount of ‘money’. This was followed by an auction where we tried once more to be the highest bidders, using our winnings to secure a number of mysteriously wrapped prizes. It was amazing how much some of our members had managed to win at the roulette table and I’m sure they wished that their winnings had been real.

LOVE FOOD, HATE WASTE.

Ladies of Stoke Golding W.I were perhaps apprehensive of the entertainment value of the talk ‘Love food, Hate waste’ that was scheduled for their October meeting. But as soon as Mohammed Bashar began his talk we became instantly amazed and downright worried on how the waste of food can affect the environment.

He began on asking us which were the 10 most wasted foods in the U.K, some of which, such as bread and potatoes we were able to guess, but some were a lot more unexpected.  The total amounts of these per year were astronomical and the methane gas given off from these foods as they decompose in land fill sites, along with the fuel etc. required to bring them to, and distributed around this country, pollutes the atmosphere and causes global warming far in excess of that caused by plastics and emissions.

A rather frightening aspect we all agreed, and so Mohammed went on to suggest ways that we all could put into place that would help us reduce our food waste. These were making shopping lists and only buying what we need. Taking notice of sell by dates and using food before the need to discard it. Store food correctly and cook only the right portions so as not to have left over cooked food that has to go to in the bin, or better still, if possible freeze it for another day.  Many common sense ideas we felt but obviously not being put into practise.

The impact of this, along with that of the rest of the U.K. doing the same, would have a Global, a Social, an Environment and a Financial impact, the latter alone that could save the average family £470 a year.

It was a very lively meeting with many questions and suggestions throughout the talk as well as when questions were asked for at the end. But Mohammed or Bash as he referred to himself at one time did leave us with some hope for the future as he said that there did seem to be some progress as people begin to realise the effect of throwing away food and with concerted effort on all our parts things could be changing.