The 2021 Food Waste campaign by Rutland Youth Council is looking for volunteer families to take part and help them get their message across.

UK households currently waste food worth a total of around £14bn every year, or £207 per person.

Nationally, this is equivalent to about 10% of the annual NHS budget. In Rutland, the total is the same as wasting around 20% or one-fifth of the county's total annual budget.

For individual families, the cost of wasting food is estimated to be around £15 every week, or a quarter of the average weekly food spend of £60.60.

Wasting food is damaging both to the environment and people's pockets. Which is why the Rutland Youth Council (RYC) have chosen Food Waste as the focus of their community campaign in 2021.

The young people will be running a programme of awareness-raising events through 2021, and they are looking for families with children to join in. Participants will learn how to reduce their food waste and save money, try out the suggestions for a few weeks and then tell the RYC team how they got on.

Councillor Lucy Stephenson, Cabinet Member for Environment said: "I'm delighted to hear of the RYC's work in this area. We can all do more to prevent food waste – helping the environment and saving money. I'm looking forward to being one of the volunteer families involved in this project and hope more will join me.

"Sometimes just pausing and reflecting on habits is what is needed to make small, individual changes that, when added together, have a big, collective impact. We all have a duty to care for the world around us."

Those interested in becoming involved should email the RYC team at [email protected] and they'll get back to you.