Helsinki halves its food waste – waste food ambassadors Marjo Niskanen and Mika Marttila give their support

Palvelukeskus Helsinki produces most of the food served in the City of Helsinki’s schools, daycare centres, hospitals and senior centres and thus plays an important role in reducing the city’s food waste.

Various measures have already significantly reduced the total amount of waste. Most of the waste consists of food put on the serving counter that never ends up on clients’ plates. To minimise this, Palvelukeskus Helsinki has appointed two food waste ambassadors to guide schools and daycare centres in reducing waste.

They are Marjo Niskanen and Mika Marttila, who have won the PRO award, a prestigious award in the Finnish food industry. As far as known, they are the first food waste ambassadors in Finland and visit more than 400 kitchens in daycare centres and schools to help reduce waste.

Every kilo counts in reducing food waste

Many people remember Marjo Niskanen as the “Queen” of Kallio Upper Secondary School, where she was in charge of the food services for 15 years. She also won PRO awards for her work and was invited to the Independence Day reception at the Presidential Palace.

Niskanen now collaborates with the food service staff of all school kitchens to find the most effective ways to reduce catering waste. 

She also gives advise on how to monitor the amount of food waste effectively and cooperates with student bodies in issues related to school meals.

In schools, surprisingly many factors contribute to plate waste, including the possibility of second servings, the presentation of food, awareness of the amount of waste and even the day of the week. In the case of secondary school pupils, what also matters is whether they participate in school meals. 

Niskanen stresses that pupils should not skip the nutritious school lunch because schools prepare meals for everyone.

“Many schools do not yet have information about how much food waste they produce. When we raise awareness in collaboration with principals and student bodies, and pupils thus pay more attention to their meals, it also has an impact on the amount of waste. For example, in some schools, the lunch hour has been extended so that the meal time is more peaceful, and pupils have enough time to finish their dishes.”

It is important to identify how hungry you are

Mika Marttila visits daycare centres to guide both kitchen and educational staff in reducing food waste and using waste tools. During this year, he has already made around 300 visits, and different tools of food education play an important role in them.

To children, he has talked about food waste in a way appropriate to their age, dressed as Chef Fox in a fox costume. Chef Fox is one of the fox characters used in sustainability education in early childhood education, so children are already familiar with the fox.

“In daycare centres, we talk about topics such as the importance of tasting different foods, eating habits and identifying how hungry you are. Children always welcome Chef Fox with enthusiasm,” Marttila says.

Marttila has noticed that his participation in the weekly meetings of educational staff has had a significant impact on daycare centres’ amount of waste food. As awareness of the amount of waste has increased, the staff and children have also paid more attention to the size of their dishes, and that it matches their hunger. Daycare centres’ educational staff play a key role in learning to determine the right portion size.

It is not sustainable to produce excess food

Reducing food waste is a common goal for the entire city and an extremely demanding one on the scale of a large city such as Helsinki.  The food waste ambassadors emphasise that everyone’s input is important in curbing food waste.

If each of our clients left one fishball on their plate at lunch, it would mean 75,000 fishballs wasted during one lunch in our food services alone.

The production of excess food does not support waste reduction targets, nor is it sustainable, even if wasted food was redistributed or resold.

“We need operating methods in which no food waste is produced in the first place. For example, reporting absences to schools and daycare centres is important so that their kitchens know the number of children having a meal each day,” says Niskanen.  

Palvelukeskus Helsinki is a key partner in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area’s joint Food Waste Ecosystem project, which develops ways to reduce waste across municipal boundaries. Systematic work to minimise food waste will be continued until 2030 and beyond because minimising food waste is a permanent operating model.

 “We all have a chance to make a difference. I challenge everyone to pay attention to their meal time and think about what they can do to minimise their own food waste,” says Niskanen.

Helsinki’s measures to reduce food waste, as well as its progress in achieving the target, can be monitored in the City of Helsinki’s Circular Economy Watch.