Kick Off Food Waste Training Programme with German Retailer PENNY

Worldwide, nearly 30% of food is wasted along the agrifood supply chain. The food resources lost and wasted in Europe alone would be enough to feed all hungry people in the world two times over (European Commission 2015). The REFRESH project and the signatories to the voluntary agreements for action it has set up in four pilot countries (Spain, Hungary, the Netherlands and Germany) work hard to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3 of reducing per capita food waste by half. These efforts include piloting new approaches to reduce food waste with businesses and other stakeholders.

In early September, the CSCP equipped twelve PENNY trainers with an employee training program specifically developed with the German retailer through the REFRESH project. The training will be delivered to approximately 800 – 900 PENNY apprentices between now and April 2018. It aims to raise awareness on the general importance of reducing food waste, measures that can be taken to do so within markets and how to support customers in reducing their food waste.

The German REFRESH Steering Committee considered employee training to be one of five priority focus areas for pilot projects. An agreement was reached in April 2017 with PENNY to conduct this training as the first German REFRESH pilot project.

Together with PENNY, the CSCP developed the concept and curriculum for the Train-the-Trainer workshop as well as for the apprentice training.

More details on this and other topics will be shared at the upcoming German REFRESH Steering Committee meeting. It will be taking place on 11 October 2017 at the CSCP offices in Wuppertal.

For further questions please contact Nora Brüggemann.