Key Learnings

Covid-19 has led to a great change in our eating habits. Households are planning meals more carefully, using the freezer more and getting better at using leftovers. These behaviours, coupled with an increase in the number of households valuing their food, have resulted in a reduction in food waste. However, a smaller proportion took up key food saving behaviours such as writing dates on products, adjusting the fridge temperature, portion sizing or storing food in the right place. Attention also needs to be given to these lesser-known behaviours to further decrease household food waste.

Plastic is still a bigger issue for householders than food waste, but interest in climate change is growing. As the UK economy and household budgets are hard hit by Covid-19, connecting the dots between climate change, food waste and saving money is more vital than ever.

Collaborations take time. Over the last two years Food Savvy has worked with over 100 organisations and influencers. We will need to work with a greater number of partners in order to embed the campaign locally and reach the scale needed. Campaign partners such as the East of England Coop, regional chefs, bloggers and schools have been instrumental in spreading the campaign messaging on the ground and online. These partnerships are especially important when Covid-19 related restrictions on high footfall events limit Food Savvy’s ability to exhibit at fairs and events.

The influencers taking part in the Food Savvy challenge benefitted from the support of others taking part. Similarly, in the 2019 Food Savvy Lunch Club we saw that camaraderie and healthy competition went a long way in helping participants to cut waste. Peer support and accountability has a big role to play.

Local chefs attracted as much interest as celebrity chefs during the Lockdown Kitchen Live series. Food Savvy primary school children were of interest to local press. Food Savvy can help diverse communities to share and celebrate food saving successes.

This year’s competitions, social media and digital content have increased traffic to the website. We sought to connect with household’s lockdown experiences and use the time for change as a means to introduce new habits to save time and money while having fun.

We successfully increased digital engagement in the latter part of the year, but less resource was given to on-theground engagement and ensuring that we reached everyone, the old, the young and the digitally excluded. Street advertising and partnerships with stores, schools and community centres help to strike the right balance.

Targeted messaging via social media had a high click through rate and drove local traffic to the website. Audience segmentation helped us to reach high wasting households such as young families. 42